Early ISP to call it quits, hand reins to another Boulder company

BOULDER — One of Colorado’s first internet service providers, Indra or Indra’s Net Inc., began as a dialup internet service in 1994 in Boulder. After a 26-year run, it will hand over the reins to managed web hosting and cloud service company CarbonLogic Inc. on Aug. 3.

Indra’s business model has come full circle, said Spike Ilacqua, Indra founder, in an email to BizWest. It started as a dialup internet, email and web hosting business. Throughout the years, it expanded to high speed internet, colocation and server management. Today, its focus is back on email and web hosting.

Ilacqua announced the arrangement between the two Boulder companies to Indra customers in an email on July 16 and a public Facebook post the following day. Customer services won’t change during the transition but they “may see cosmetic differences on your bill, such as Carbon Logic’s name where you would expect to see Indra’s Net.”

According to CarbonLogic owner Chris Bianco, CarbonLogic has a verbal agreement to acquire Indra’s assets and a final agreement will be inked before August. The Indra name, systems and where customers send payments will remain the same to ensure a smooth process, he said.

Indra’s three employees will work with CarbonLogic’s team of six for the first few months, Bianco said, and their roles will later be evaluated. Ilacqua said that he will provide support but won’t be a part of the day-to-day operations.

Neither Indra nor CarbonLogic shared the financial terms of the deal.

According to Bianco, Indra attempted to start discussions several years ago but at the time CarbonLogic wasn’t interested. Bianco has known Illacqua for some time, so there’s a “high degree of trust between all parties,” as agreements are still being drafted.

“We are very similar businesses. We kind of have the same philosophies, values, all that type of stuff,” Bianco said.

While Indra didn’t identify a specific reason for the acquisition, Ilacqua did confirm that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted business.

“COVID-19 has been hard on some of our customers and by extension on us,” he said in an email. “While we could carry on, I wanted to make sure our customers had a solid home for the foreseeable future. Some of them have been using @indra.com email address for 25 years,” he said. 

While CarbonLogic has had issues with some larger clients, such as music industry companies, during the pandemic, revenues are up by 20% over last year from smaller customers, Bianco said. 

“While we are excited for the next phase, this moment is bittersweet. We want to honestly express our appreciation to each and every one of you who has been with us for so many years,” Illacqua said in the changing-of-hands announcement last week. 

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