If you have not heard it looks like Alpha Red is down, possibly out for the count, but apparantly not at this hour.
What we do know:
- Washington State has filed anti-scareware suit against two businesses including Alpha Red. There are also complaints against Alpha Red's CEO James McCreary alleging violations of the Consumer Protection Act and/or Washington State's Computer Spyware Act.
- A few days ago it was announced that CWIE Holdings was purchasing Alpha Red.
- A few days later the word came out that the CWIE/Alpha Red deal was basically dead.
- Earlier this AM the Alpha Red web site was down, now it is up.
The first CWIE release was about 9 days after the legal news. That is fast and probably intended to stop an eroding client base. The deal is dead notice was four days later.
I am reading fire sale, I am smelling fear.
The question is why or how did the deal tank. I have a few guesses; CWIE did some due-diligence, did not like something out there and pulled out. Deal points were disputed, probably price. James McCreary decided the sale was a kneejerk reaction and that he was selling way too cheap, and lastly although CWIE was purchasing assets, then decided they did not want to get close to those assets. All of these have one thing in common, money...almost all deals, especially announced deals, fall apart because of a money factor.
Fear by the way is not a bad thing. My gut is that CWIE walked away. Probably for a good reason.
Owners of dedicated hosting firms have told me they are getting numerous calls from Alpha Red customers that are jumping ship. Some if not many Alpha Red customers are concerned about accessing or losing data (Which may or may not be actually true).
Lets admit it, for the customer this in an odd situation. The type of error that will not readily replicate itself. But lets think of the long term, something I will attack in my next blog.
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I've been following this on the message boards pretty closely for the stories we've been doing. And I haven't checked since about three hours ago, but the rumor on WHT from last night to a few hours ago was that the place was locked up and nobody was home. Some people were even saying the staff had all been let go (totally unconfirmed rumors, by the way). But I think it's pretty safe to say CWIE walked away from this deal and not Alpha Red. It doesn't sound like there's going to be anything left to sell, aside from physical assets, in a day or two.
I have a follow-up draft on what I believe the size of Alpha Red is, and how a hosting company can take advantage of the situation. Hopefully it will be up by tomorrow.
There are 12 of our servers there. But nobody of us in USA now.
We do not know how we could jump to other provider.
What we can do in this case?
BTW, Alphared was the excellent provider... good staff, very professional support.
It very, very pity...
www.aldridge.com
www.fastpcnet.net
www.jaguarpc.com
www.cyrusone.com
www.hostgator.com
Be aggressive until you get this resolved. Also keep on trying Alfa Red. But assuming the worst you need someone to get you in the door. If nothing else maybe one of these firms can move you in the right direction.
Pull whatever documentation you have such as agreements, correspondence, pull a couple of recent bills indicating you are a customer in good standing and documentation you own the servers. I presume you have the address of where your servers are located.