Nov 10, 2006 : The webhost industry: week review

📅 November 10, 2006 - No doubt, this week's Web hosting industry news was about big events, with much of the week's activity taking place at one of the biggest Web hosting events, ISPCON.


The Internet service provider event kicked off Tuesday in Santa Clara, California, bringing together Web hosts, ISPs and many combinations of the two. Tuesday's program included a keynote presentation by Elliott Noss, CEO of Tucows and Doc Searls, senior editor of Linux Journal, and sessions filling out Hosting, VoIP, Wireless, Marketing and Business tracks.

ISPCON continued Wednesday, with many of its sessions shifting their focus away from the more theoretical marketing bent, and focusing more on specific revenue generating techniques. The day's agenda included a keynote session featuring executives from ISPs EasyStreet, M5 Networks, Sonic.net and KeyOn, as well as a vendor session from SWsoft on how access providers can generate new revenue from building out Web hosting infrastructure.

The conference concluded on Thursday, the closing of the exhibit hall crowned by the awarding of a new Segway device to a contest-winning attendee, Chiachi Hung of Magicore. While the exhibit hall was closed, the sessions continued elsewhere, drawing crowds until late in the afternoon, and offering a presentation on "Seven Reasons Why Hosting is Hot Right Now" by EV1 Servers/The Planet CEO Doug Erwin.

While the big Web hosting event was taking place in California, Web hosts around the US were announcing big events within their own operations, including a major appointment and several significant acquisitions.

On Thursday, Rackspace Managed hosting announced that its president Lanham Napier would assume the role of CEO from the company's current CEO and chairman Graham Weston. The two say they will continue to run the company as they have for more than six years, as Weston assumes the newly created role of executive chairman.

Also on Thursday, managed service provider Quality Technology Services announced it had completed the acquisition of Web host Globix, a deal that was first struck October 3. The combined company, says Quality Tech, will operate with more than 210 employees, 1,500 customers and $86 million in revenue.

And on Wednesday, interactive marketing firm BlueFreeway announced that it would pay approximately $18 million in cash and $2 million in BlueFreeway shares for Web hosting and e-commerce company Destra. BlueFreeway says it has been planning to consolidate specialized marketing agencies under the BlueFreeway brand.

While all of this week's news had considerable immediate impact, the lingering effects of any of these events may be difficult to spot. However, it may be interesting to follow the integration efforts that come after the two acquisitions.