The Planet Acquires Services Firm Touch Support

HOUSTON, May 21, 2008 – The Planet, the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today announced the acquisition of Touch Support, LLC (www.touchsupport.com).  Based in Lafayette, Ind., the company provides server administration management services to its global customer base.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

With this acquisition, The Planet will introduce a new portfolio of advanced services for dedicated hosting customers who are looking to optimize their business results without relinquishing control of their IT infrastructures.  The new advanced services offerings will provide customers with the ability to select advanced services from a modular suite of solutions.  Touch Support’s current portfolio includes server administration, technical support, security audits and server hardening, server virtualization, migration, monitoring and managed backups.  The company also provides hourly server administration support for customers looking for one-time or custom requests.

“The complexity of managing an IT infrastructure continues to grow, and we’ve had a number of our dedicated hosting customers request that we provide additional services,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Douglas J. Erwin.  “These companies entrust their businesses and their livelihoods with
The Planet, and they come to us for our enterprise-class network and six world-class data centers. With the acquisition of Touch Support, we can extend our portfolio to include high-quality advanced services that enable us to help them grow their businesses. 

“We looked at a number of companies in the services arena, and far and away Touch Support was the best fit,” Erwin continued.  “About 25 percent of their customers use our hosting services, so they have a strong working knowledge of The Planet.  Equally as important is their commitment to being a customer-driven company.  Over the next few months, we’ll make a number of announcements about the breadth of our extended services.”  

 “The Planet offers Touch Support and our employees opportunities to grow the new advanced services business for their dedicated hosting customers, backed by solid financial resources,” said Touch Support’s General Manager David Lindahl.  “Our existing customers also will appreciate The Planet’s commitment to being a customer-centric company, which reflects our own philosophies.  I envision growing our services portfolio to provide even greater value for our existing companies and to those we will attract to our offerings.” 

“We bring to The Planet a highly skilled team that’s been chosen for their technical ability, intelligence and problem-solving skills, as well as their natural inclination to help customers,” said Sean Richards, Touch Support’s Technical Director.  “From our own dealings with customers, this is a market that continues to grow since so many companies need help but don’t want to turn over their entire IT framework to be managed.  We plan to quickly integrate Touch Support and The Planet and then extend our services to our combined customers.”

During the third quarter, The Planet will make announcements about its Advanced Services portfolio.

About The Planet

            The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 22,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 6.7 million Web sites worldwide.  By offering the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and unmatched network connectivity, The Planet helps turn information technology into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to successfully grow their businesses.  For additional information, visit www.theplanet.com

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