Apr 19, 2002 : The webhost industry: week review
📅 - There were plenty of mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies to report this week, as the Web hosting industry, which had stayed fairly quiet this month, suddenly became very active.
On Thursday, managed Web hosting and Internet services firm AppliedTheory Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection, two days after it warned in its annual report that it might be forced to file for Chapter 11.
In conjunction with the filing, the company said it had agreed to sell its network business to Internet services firm FASTNET Corporation, and that it had entered in to an agreement with Web hosting firm ClearBlue Technologies, Inc. to purchase AppliedTheory's managed hosting business. AppliedTheory has approximately 300 employees.
There was also an acquisition in the software sector this week, as server manufacturer iXsystems, Inc. and software developer Racemi Inc. announced an agreement in which iXsystems will acquire Racemi's RACE5 blade server technology and certain intellectual property for the design and operation of blade and rack-optimized servers.
And on Tuesday, domain name registration firm Alldomains.com said that Chris Bura, who founded the company in 1996, purchased Alldomains.com back from Web hosting firm Hostcentric earlier this year. Alldomains.com was one of five that merged in May of 2000 to form Hostcentric, where Bura served as president of its Domain Division.
It wasn't a very good week for Metromedia Fiber Network (MFN), a provider of digital communications infrastructure, which warned last month that it might be forced to soon file for bankruptcy protection. On Wednesday, the company said it would be forced to delay the filing of its annual report because it expected to restate the financial results for the first three quarters of its last fiscal year. The company also said that its auditor, KPMG, that they were not able to review the company's quarterly data in accordance with professional standards "because MFN's internal control structure and policies and procedures for the preparation of interim financial information did not provide an adequate basis for them to complete such a review," the company said. As a result of all of this, the Nasdaq suspended trading of MFN shares pending additional information from the company.
Linux specialists Red Hat had a fairly busy week, as it unveiled a new software solution and announced a key executive change. On Monday, the company unveiled its Stronghold Enterprise, an open source Web server that is the latest addition to the company's new line of enterprise solutions. Stronghold Enterprise is a secure Web server based on Apache that provides enhanced security features.
And on Thursday, the company appointed Patrick Kerrigan Vice President of Sales for the Americas. Kerrigan recently resigned as vice president of sales for Entigo Software, where he helped grow revenues from $8 million to $12 million in less than a year.
Keeping with software for a moment, Microsoft announced a partnership this week with Cable & Wireless' Exodus Communications hosting unit that will see the two companies work together to offer a distributed Microsoft .NET application platform to Exodus Customers. The partnership is aimed at making the development and deployment of XML Web services faster and easier for customers.
Internet services firm Network Commerce Inc. said Wednesday it had seen substantial company growth since October 2001, adding more than 3,000 customers to bring its total to 7,500. The company, which provides hosting, domain registration and e-mail marketing services, credited its new incentive packages as a driving factor in the company's growth.
And Toronto-based Q9 Networks officially got in to the SME hosting business this week when it unveiled its new managed service offering, initially priced at $1500 CDN. The bundled package, which includes a dedicated server, managed bandwidth and tape back-up services, is geared toward customers seeking a robust solution that is more reliable and scalable than shared Web hosting.
Earnings season is in full swing, and announcements from a number of industry heavyweights should provide a good indication of the direction in which the communications sector is heading. Look to reports from companies like Digex, Level 3 and Check Point Software to provide hints as to how the sector is doing across the board, and how it will fare in the future.
On Thursday, managed Web hosting and Internet services firm AppliedTheory Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection, two days after it warned in its annual report that it might be forced to file for Chapter 11.
In conjunction with the filing, the company said it had agreed to sell its network business to Internet services firm FASTNET Corporation, and that it had entered in to an agreement with Web hosting firm ClearBlue Technologies, Inc. to purchase AppliedTheory's managed hosting business. AppliedTheory has approximately 300 employees.
There was also an acquisition in the software sector this week, as server manufacturer iXsystems, Inc. and software developer Racemi Inc. announced an agreement in which iXsystems will acquire Racemi's RACE5 blade server technology and certain intellectual property for the design and operation of blade and rack-optimized servers.
And on Tuesday, domain name registration firm Alldomains.com said that Chris Bura, who founded the company in 1996, purchased Alldomains.com back from Web hosting firm Hostcentric earlier this year. Alldomains.com was one of five that merged in May of 2000 to form Hostcentric, where Bura served as president of its Domain Division.
It wasn't a very good week for Metromedia Fiber Network (MFN), a provider of digital communications infrastructure, which warned last month that it might be forced to soon file for bankruptcy protection. On Wednesday, the company said it would be forced to delay the filing of its annual report because it expected to restate the financial results for the first three quarters of its last fiscal year. The company also said that its auditor, KPMG, that they were not able to review the company's quarterly data in accordance with professional standards "because MFN's internal control structure and policies and procedures for the preparation of interim financial information did not provide an adequate basis for them to complete such a review," the company said. As a result of all of this, the Nasdaq suspended trading of MFN shares pending additional information from the company.
Linux specialists Red Hat had a fairly busy week, as it unveiled a new software solution and announced a key executive change. On Monday, the company unveiled its Stronghold Enterprise, an open source Web server that is the latest addition to the company's new line of enterprise solutions. Stronghold Enterprise is a secure Web server based on Apache that provides enhanced security features.
And on Thursday, the company appointed Patrick Kerrigan Vice President of Sales for the Americas. Kerrigan recently resigned as vice president of sales for Entigo Software, where he helped grow revenues from $8 million to $12 million in less than a year.
Keeping with software for a moment, Microsoft announced a partnership this week with Cable & Wireless' Exodus Communications hosting unit that will see the two companies work together to offer a distributed Microsoft .NET application platform to Exodus Customers. The partnership is aimed at making the development and deployment of XML Web services faster and easier for customers.
Internet services firm Network Commerce Inc. said Wednesday it had seen substantial company growth since October 2001, adding more than 3,000 customers to bring its total to 7,500. The company, which provides hosting, domain registration and e-mail marketing services, credited its new incentive packages as a driving factor in the company's growth.
And Toronto-based Q9 Networks officially got in to the SME hosting business this week when it unveiled its new managed service offering, initially priced at $1500 CDN. The bundled package, which includes a dedicated server, managed bandwidth and tape back-up services, is geared toward customers seeking a robust solution that is more reliable and scalable than shared Web hosting.
Earnings season is in full swing, and announcements from a number of industry heavyweights should provide a good indication of the direction in which the communications sector is heading. Look to reports from companies like Digex, Level 3 and Check Point Software to provide hints as to how the sector is doing across the board, and how it will fare in the future.
Reads: 1888 | Category: General | Source: TheWHIR : Web Host Industry ReviewsURL source: http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/wrap041902.cfm
Company: Alldomains [alldomains.com -> dotster.com]
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