People do sell successful companies (via private sale or going public) to cash out and move on something else instead of taking the risk that their luck may change
HostPlanz, you point seemed have changed from "Hostgator such a great one of a kind program too bad new management going to slash it" to "Hostgator program not worth it as in many cases it won't pay"? I just wanna say that I don't see nothing extraordinary in $100 per hosting signup payout, many hosting programs do offer the same. The only way I see how is it special, is that hostgator is (or perceived by many as) top shared hosting provider, so it should be easier to make Hostgator sale than XyzUnknownHosting even if both program pay the same.
Some do. most do not.. The title of the thread is "Precautionary Measure?" So your Precautionary Measure is to just ignore any risk and think a company that has been taken over will remain the same? I have never been a HG affiliate but the companies I have worked for had a decent wait on payouts anywhere from 30-90days. So it is a good sized gamble for a lot of people to have money sitting in someone elses hands for that amount of time. Who is the new company and what is their record of paying out to affiliates? Do they even have a record? Will they even keep the affiliate program as it runs now? When they bought HG Did their contract say they had to pay out to affiliates? What were the clauses?
I would make a full backup while you still can! Hosts under EIG have a tendency to make backing up your site a pain in an effort to persuade you to "deal with them".
Did this acquisition already go through? I agree with Dan, back it up because you never know what will happen when the new team arrives. Additionally, Host Gator isn't the only one paying out really well for referral or affiliate signups. If you are with HG and wondering what will happen to your data and how things will change then start your backups now and start making your new hosting choice if you are thinking about moving.