Host Europe Group (HEG),is buying German web hosting company Intergenia for a reported $262 million (€210m), continuing the consolidation of hosting firms in Europe. 

HEG owns brands such as 123reg, WebFusion and DomainFactory, and calls itself Europe's largest privately owned hosting provider. Ingesting intergenia for an undisclosed sum will give more substance to that claim. Intergenia Holding GmbH started in 1999 and is supplies professional web hosting under brands including PlusServer, serverloft, Server4You and Unmetered.com.

Making a profit
HEG is buying out Oakley Capital, which owned a 51 percent  controlling share of Intergenia. Oakley is making a substantial amount on the deal, having bought 51 percent of Intergenia for $56 million (€40m) in 2011.

The original management and founders of Intergenia are remaining with the company.  “We are enormously proud to join forces with HEG," said Thomas Strohe, CEO of intergenia. "There is a clear synergy between our two combined businesses."

“intergenia is a market leader in their field, and we welcome them into the HEG fold," said Patrick Pulvermüller, group CEO of HEG. "The intergenia product range will add to HEG’s already sophisticated offering, allowing us to continue to help businesses make the most of their online potential.”

The transaction, still subject to regulatory approvals, is only the latest in a long and tangled series of mergers and acquisitions. In recent yearsm Host Europe Group has bought Telefónica Online Services, Mesh Digital, RedCoruna, Heart Internet and Dynamic-net.

HEG itself was known as GX Networks until 2009, a group which had previously owned brands including the UK's venerable Pipex. By coincidence, in 2009 Host Europe Group was owned by the company it is buying Intergenia from, Oakley Group. It was sold to Montagu Private Equity in 2010, and In 2013 HEG was sold to Cinven.

As an aside, Intergenia claims to operate "Europe’s greenest data", a Strasbourg site called "Datadock", which uses ground water cooling.