PEER 1 Hosting to Acquire UK-based Managed Hosting Provider
Acquisition makes PEER 1 Hosting #2 for UK SMEs
SOUTHAMPTON, England, June 6, 2012/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
PEER 1 Hosting [http://www.peer1hosting.co.uk ] (TSX: PIX), the global web hosting
provider, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all of the
outstanding shares in the capital of NetBenefit [http://www.netbenefit.com ] (UK) Limited,
a leading UK-based managed hosting company and division of London-based Group NBT Limited
[http://www.groupnbt.com ], for GBP25m in cash. NetBenefit reported revenues of GBP7m in
2011 and has operations in UK and France serving approximately 700 customers.
The acquisition firmly positions PEER 1 Hosting as the number two provider of SME
Managed Hosting services in the UK and creates a platform to support their growth in
Europe. In the last 12 months, PEER 1 Hosting grew annualised run-rate revenues by 100% in
EMEA.
"This deal strengthens our position as a full solution provider in the UK, which sees
us now become a compliant PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Level 1 provider, with a
datacentre in London for customers demanding low-latency hosting," said Dominic Monkhouse,
Managing Director EMEA of PEER 1 Hosting. "NetBenefit's presence in France also allows us
to extend our outstanding customer experience into Europe."
Integration of NetBenefit's two existing datacentres into PEER 1 Hosting's high
performance FastFiber Network(TM) will create significant opportunities for additional
peering and transit service revenues. As part of the agreement, Group NBT will become a
direct customer of PEER1 Hosting. The merger of a large number of highly skilled staff
also means PEER 1 Hosting customers will have access to an outstanding pool of technical
talent.
"PEER 1 Hosting has a great reputation for customer service and as an outstanding
employer," said Gary McIlraith Chief Executive of Group NBT Limited, owners of NetBenefit.
"The breadth and scale of their cloud offering will bring increased choice for our loyal
customer base. We are 100% confident that this is good news for us, our customers and
staff."
PEER 1 Hosting is one of the world's leading web hosting providers. The company is
built on two obsessions: Ping & People. Ping, represents its commitment to best-in-breed
technology, founded on a high performance 10Gbps FastFiber Network(TM) connected by 18
state-of-the-art datacentres, 22 points-of-presence and 10 colocation facilities
throughout North America and Europe. People, represents its commitment to delivering
outstanding customer service to over 12,000 customers worldwide, backed by a 100 percent
uptime guarantee and 24x7x365 FirstCall Support(TM). PEER 1 Hosting's portfolio includes
Managed Hosting [http://www.peer1hosting.co.uk/managed-hosting ], Colocation
[http://www.peer1hosting.co.uk/hosting/colocation ] and Dedicated Servers
[http://www.serverbeach.com/servers ] [http://www.serverbeach.com/servers ] under the
ServerBeach brand, and Cloud Services through Zunicore. [http://www.zunicore.com ] Founded
in 1999, the company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with European operations
headquartered in Southampton, UK. PEER 1 Hosting shares are traded on the TSX under the
symbol PIX. For more information visit: http://www.peer1hosting.co.uk.
About NetBenefit
Established in 1995, NetBenefit is one of the UK's most experienced managed hosting
companies. We specialise in providing tailored managed hosting solutions that deliver
security, resilience and online performance for business critical websites, applications
and online advertising campaigns.
We have evolved with the internet to our position today as a leading provider of
bespoke, flexible managed hosting solutions to well-known brands such as New Statesman and
British Red Cross. While remaining small enough to be committed to the success of all our
customers.
Our team consists of experienced consultants, pre-sales, project managers, technical
architects and engineers, all of whom are here to help guarantee the online success of
your business. We are focused on delivering hosting peace of mind so that our customers
can focus on what they do best.
Media Contact: Champion Communications, +44(0)207-637-2587,
PEER1hosting@championcomms.com