Nov 23, 2001 : The The webhost industry: week review

📅 November 23, 2001 - It was a slower week than normal in the world of Web hosting, thanks largely in part to the early weekend many companies took because of Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday in the United Sates.
US markets were closed for Thanksgiving, and although they re-opened Friday, volume was expected to be light.
Because of the holiday, the only thing of interest to happen Thursday was the results of the first half of the fiscal year for Japanese communications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), parent of US hosting company Verio. NTT said it was forced to take a $2 billion write-off because of acquisitions like Verio.
"At the interim settlement, corporate values of overseas companies in which the NTT Group holds equity positions were reevaluated in light of the recent changes in the business environment, such as the ongoing 'IT recession' and the slowdown in the U.S. economy, and current financial conditions," the company said.
Shares in NTT lost a little over a dollar in value during the week, and were trading at $19.52 Friday morning.
On Wednesday, infrastructure firm Metromedia Fiber Network said that CEO Nick Tanzi had resigned for "personal reasons." Mark Spagnolo, the company's COO, now becomes the company's President and CEO.
Shares in Metromedia dropped about four cents on the news, and were trading at 70 cents Friday morning.
On the European front, Reuters reported Tuesday that Data Communications firm KPNQwest would cut up to one-fifth of its 2,200 person workforce in Europe by the end of the year in a restructuring effort.
"We are cutting the jobs to meet the objective of lowering selling, general and administrative expenses to 20-25 percent of revenues from 40 percent in the third quarter,'' said Koen van Zijl, a spokesperson for KPNQwest.
The cuts are in addition to the ones the company announced last month after taking over European communications firm Global TeleSystems, parent company of IP services company Ebone. KPNQwest plans to cut up to 30 per cent of GTS' global workforce.
Investors reacted well to the news, sending shares up about 75 cents by Friday, where KPNQwest was trading at $7.75 approaching the afternoon.
In product and service news, Marc Andreesen's ASP LoudCloud announced four new security services Tuesday in an effort to enhance site security and minimize the potential for human error in deploying, monitoring, and managing systems. The four services (Vulnerability Analysis, Intrusion Detection Analysis, Application Code Review and Application Attack Simulation) are powered by Opsware automation technology.
Shares in LoudCloud had a very up-and-down week, gaining almost 75 cents in value before dropping to three dollars by Friday morning.
Dell Computer introduced the PowerEdge 1500SC, the latest addition to its line of network servers for small- and medium-sized businesses, corporate departments and workgroups. The servers, which start at approximately $1,400, offer business customers a powerful server for email, Web serving and file sharing. The server features ServerWorks' HE-SL chipset, which supports a 1.13GHz Intel Pentium III processor.
And finally, Ebone announced a partnership Monday with content delivery firm Speedera that will increase the global presence of both companies. The partnership is part of the Speedera Fusion program, which is designed to provide partners of Speedera with a full set of managed delivery services.
Under the agreement, Speedera will get access to one of Europe's largest networks, which will increase the company's European presence and allow it to get strategic access points on the network.
Judging by the up-and-down nature of this condensed trading week, it looks like there is still great concern regarding the economy's short-term outlook. Here's to hoping that investors will return from their turkey dinners next week ready to go on a buying spree.