Mar 14, 2003 : The webhost industry: week review

📅 March 14, 2003 - This week saw a considerable amount of news come out of the domain name business, driven most notably by the introduction of new country code TLDs in markets outside North America. At the same time, the Web hosting industry saw a number of new executive appointments, as well as a significant acquisition.
On Monday, online software service provider DataWeb announced that it had acquired the Web-based rapid application development business from application infrastructure firm BEA Systems. The deal, worth over $7 million, includes the purchase of software used for developing dynamic Web applications, as well as a hosting facility accompanied by 3,000 customers colocated with AT&T. DataWeb said it would re-name the new assets to the HostRAD Designer for hosted rapid application development.
Along with the acquisition by DataWeb, the Web hosting industry witnessed several announcement from the registrars and regulatory bodies involved in the domain name business.
At the end of last week, domain name registrar BulkRegister announced that it had opened pre-registration for the .CN country-code top level domain associated with China. The pre-registration period, which began on Friday, March 7, will continue until Sunday, March 16, the day the .CN domains are opened to the public. Until now, the domains have been open only to residents of China, but should now be of considerable interest to businesses looking to target China's 59 million Internet users, says Bulkregister.
On Monday, domain registrar directNIC.com announced that it, too, had opened pre-registration services for the .CN domain. directNIC.com says its pre-registration service guarantees that registration of the requested domain will be attempted the moment the domain is made public. There is no risk to the service, says directNIC.com, as clients will only be billed when a pre-registration results in a valid domain registration.
And, also on Monday, it was reported that the United Nations has said Afghanistan was prepared to formally inaugurate its .AF country code domain for Afghan Web sites and e-mail addresses. Officials said the announcement was a big step for a country where the Internet was banned during the rule of the Taliban. During that period, non-governmental use of e-mail services and Web sites was punishable by death. At the time, the .AF domain was registered by Afghan expatriates, acting privately.
While there was plenty of news from the domain name business, the Web hosting business had plenty of news of its own, including the appointments of a number of new executives.
On Tuesday, Web hosting firm Rackspace Managed Hosting announced that it had appointed Glenn Reinus as vice president of sales, making him responsible for building and managing the company's sales organization. Rackspace says Reinus brings 20 years of sales management and business development experience in the telecommunications, networking and Internet software markets to the company. He previously served at Web communications services provider WebEx as vice president of worldwide sales and business development.
On Tuesday, media and telecommunications mergers and acquisitions specialist Daniels & Associates announced that it had appointed Bill Fowler and Craig Moseley to executive vice president positions. Fowler will continue to serve as chief financial officer, a position he has held since 1997. In his new role, he will take on added responsibilities in human resources and administration. Moseley, says the company, is a founding member of Daniels' Interntet Technologies Group, which he will manage through his new role.
On Thursday, Daniels & Associates announced that it had named an additional vice president in Steve Hubbard. According to Daniels, Hubbard provides mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and financial advisory services to clients in the information technology and telecommunications industries. In his time with the company, he has facilitated a number of transactions in various sectors of the telecommunications business. Hubbard was previously a vice president of mergers and acquisitions at Sakura Bank, one of the world's largest banks.
Also on Thursday, communications carrier Level 3 Communications announced that it had appointed Sunit S. Patel as group vice president, and expects that he will succeed Sureel Choksi as chief financial officer in May of 2003, following the company's annual stockholders meeting. Level 3 says Patel was formerly chief financial officer of metropolitan telecommunications transport services provider Looking Glass Networks Inc., which he helped to found. Before that, he was treasurer of MCI WorldCom, WorldCom and MFS Communications from 1994 to 2000.
This week, the Web hosting industry was able to look for new developments outside its usual borders, both in business and geography, as some of the week's notable developments came from the domain registration business, specifically the domain business in Asia and the Middle East.