The Web Host Industry Week in Review
[14.12]
Web hosts continued announcing holiday specials, but this week's news saw some more significant and surprising reports, in particular the complex roberry at a London Verizon data center.
Last week, a Verizon Business data center located near King's Cross station in London, England was broken into when three to five men posing as policemen gained access to the facility, tied up staff and stole computing equipment. The imposters tricked employees by claiming reports of people on the facility's roof, and made off with computer equipment including motherboards. None of the staff were hurt, and no arrests have yet been made. The incident is being investigated by the Serious and Organised Crime Command, according to police.
On Wednesday, Web hosting provider The Planet announced that it had officially opened its new headquarters at the Bayou Place entertainment complex in Houston, Texas. According to the company, Houston mayor Bill White named December 12 "The Planet Day" in Houston. The grand opening included a ribbon cutting ceremony and a presentation by The Planet's chairman and CEO Douglas J. Erwin. The new 80,000 square foot office is home to customer and technical support, as well as the network operations center and sales, finance, marketing and human resources operations.
As The Planet finished building its new facility, several hosting providers announced that they were close to acquisition moves.
On Monday, Australian Web host Hostworks announced that it had entered an agreement that would see Broadcast Australia take over all of Hostingworks' shares at a rate of 41 cents per share Australian, a premium of 37 percent over the previous closing price. The deal is subject to the approval of Hostworks shareholders at a meeting that will take place in February 2008, but is recommended unanimously by the company's directors.
On Monday, Host Color announced that it had added the latest version of the Drupal content management system to its offerings. The easy-to-use program is included with four of the company's hosting plans, and included the company's PowerTools software package. Host Color says Drupal is a good way for a new user to start building an online business or personal Web presence.
Most of this week's acquisition-related news will more than likely have a continuing impact in the weeks to come, but most interesting will likely be the ongoing investigation into the robbery at Verizon Business's data center.
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