Here's an interesting problem. Through the dot com era (and slightly before), the hosting market was driven to ravenous acquisitions of companies based on the value of their customers. Companies were able to make acquisitions on the basis of their customer contracts - a fairly simple equation.

Cloud Computing is built on utility platforms. It doesn't actually have a lock-in on contracts. Your customer base is stuck with you only as long as nothing else better comes along, or the pain of moving outweighs other factors.  read more »