Rackspace is officially no longer looking for a buyer

Managed-cloud computing and hosting provider Rackspace said today that it will stay independent, four months after announcing that it was open to partnership and acquisition proposals.

The company also appointed Taylor Rhodes as its new chief executive. He previously held the role of president, which he took on in January.

The news suggests that Rackspace wants to focus hard on its new managed-cloud strategy, rather than lag in the commodity cloud-infrastructure market, which Amazon Web Services leads. Then again, one could also conclude that Rackspace didn’t receive just the right offer.

This also puts an end to loads of speculation about the future of the company.

From today’s release:

After a comprehensive review, the board decided to terminate M&A discussions. Based on Rackspace’s reaccelerated revenue growth and its potential trajectory for the coming year, the board concluded the company is best positioned to maximize shareholder value by executing its strategy as the #1 managed cloud company.

Rackspace also considered and then decided against repurchasing stock shares, according to the statement.

The timing is interesting. Earlier this month Bloomberg reported that telecommunications and cloud provider CenturyLink was looking into a Rackspace acquisition.

In February Rackspace replaced Lanham Napier, who had been Rackspace’s chief executive since 2006, with his predecessor, Graham Weston, who previously held the position from 1999 to 2006.

Some Rackspace executives, like Mark Interrante, have also left Rackspace.

In June VentureBeat reported that a top Rackspace executive had requested a handshake agreement from a competitor, asking them not to poach Rackspace’s most effective employees.

Rackspace stock was down more than 16 percent in after-hours trading following the company’s announcement.