Hogenhouck m&a connects Shock Media with investor

Shock Media has received a capital injection from Strikwerda Investments. The hosting company and the private equity investor were connected M&A-office Hogenhouck.

“The collaboration creates a unique opportunity, because a platform is created with a lot of strength, capital and specific knowledge,” says Alain Götz, who founded Shock Media in 1999. “This way Shock Media can further scale up while fully retaining its customer oriented culture and approach.”

The Almelo company specializes in managed hosting. Shock Media does not build websites, but manages those of other organisations. Such as web shops of multinationals and websites of municipalities and healthcare institutions. If these go down, it will cause a lot of problems. Shock Media uses software solutions to ensure that they stay up at all times.

In the first few years, Götz didn’t make much money from his entrepreneurship. He paid himself minimum wage and, as a director and sole shareholder, earned much less than his staff. But that didn’t bother him. “I believed that the tipping point would come automatically if I just kept working hard,” he told business magazine Quote.

In the meantime Götz’ hard work has indeed paid off abundantly. For example, since 2013 Shock Media has been allowed to call itself FD Gazelle, a title that Het Financieele Dagblad annually awards to the fastest growing companies in our country. With the capital injection from Strikwerda Investments, Shock Media wants to continue this growth trajectory.

“We are convinced that we reinforce each other from our different areas of expertise,” says Abe Bakker, investment director at Strikwerda Investments. “Together we can take a leading role in the European market. We look forward to a successful and pleasant cooperation.”

Strikwerda Investments is Rinse Strikwerda’s investment vehicle. He founded the so-called ‘family office’ after he took his software company TAS to the stock exchange in 1998. Strikwerda Investments focuses on medium-sized companies. In recent years, it has invested heavily in the IT sector. For example, some time ago it acquired a majority interest in Total Webhosting Solutions (TWS) – which has since become a major player in the traditional web hosting market.

Starting from your own strength

With the investment in Shock Media, Strikwerda Investments wants to further expand its influence within the hosting segment in the coming years. Bakker – who, in addition to his work for Strikwerda Investments, has also fulfilled the role of CEO at TWS since September 2021 – emphasizes that the investor wants to rely on Shock Media’s own strength.

“The collaboration can only be successful if the power of Shock Media can be safeguarded, for example by preserving people, culture and autonomy. Our role will therefore mainly consist of supporting the management team. Alain will therefore remain CEO of Shock Media, but he will also participate and advise within TWS.”

Energetic match

Shock Media was assisted in the transaction by Hogenhouck m&a. In 2017, the merger and acquisition specialist and Alain Götz met for the first time. After several meetings, the specialists from the M&A agency started looking for a suitable investor for Shock Media some time ago – after which they put Götz in touch with Strikwerda Investments.

“When entering into a long-term relationship, you should consider the initial phase, the choices and ambitions,” says Hein Stoops van Hogenhouck, who, together with colleagues Rik Stikkelbroeck and Daan Zonneveld, supported Shock Media during the deal process. “This has led to a match that really energizes both parties.”

At the time of writing, the exact deal size is unknown. Just like the exact allocation key of the Shock Media shares. For example, Götz indicates in the regional newspaper Tubantia that he does not want to say whether he still has a majority interest. “That’s what we agreed on and I’m sticking to that.”

Source: https://www.consultancy.nl/nieuws/39141/hogenhouck-ma-brengt-shock-media-samen-met-investeerder