The Planet Reports Record Third Quarter

October 29, 2007; 08:44 AM

HOUSTON – The Planet, the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today announced results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2007.  The Planet issues quarterly updates to provide its customers, business partners and prospects with information relative to new initiatives and its progress.

“The Planet produced another record revenue quarter, continuing its inception-to-date string of sequential record quarters,” said Chief Financial Officer Kevin Klausmeyer.  “Gross margins exceeded 34 percent due to aggressive cost control. EBITDA approximated 29 percent, despite substantial continued investment in the business.  Our private rack business is growing very fast, at more than 80%. This business is comprised of our highest ARPU (average revenue per unit) transactions, which range from $500 to $800. Our private rack business is driven by our ‘stickiest’ customers, who enter into contracts of varying lengths of at least one year.”

“We are seeing increasingly strong results across the company from our intense focus on customer experience,” said Chairman and CEO Douglas J. Erwin.  “Customers are our life blood and are directly responsible for our success, so we consistently monitor satisfaction metrics.  We continue to drive initiatives that place customers front and center in the products and services we provide, which is enabling us to grow faster than the hosting industry.”

Third Quarter Highlights

Record Transactions:  More than 1,500 new customers leased servers in the company’s six world-class data centers. 

Microsoft Small Business Server®:  The company added the new hosted Microsoft ® Small Business Server (SBS) solution, an enterprise-class “IT portfolio-in-a-box” designed expressly for IT integrators.  The suite includes Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Outlook®, Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server and Microsoft SQL Server™, bundled with anti-virus and spam protection, and a comprehensive data backup solution.

Powerful New Servers:  The Planet added new Dell 840 Kentsfield mid-range servers, along with Dell’s high-end dual Clovertown with Xeon 5335 processors.  The company also announced its new Ready-To-Go server line, making products available in one hour.

Private Rack Additions:  The company bolstered its private rack offerings with the availability of Foundry's new ServerIron Global Server Load Balancer products that operate at gigabit speeds and beyond.

Dedicated Backup:  Equipped with R1Soft’s full-featured CDPServer continuous data protection software, the company introduced three new Dedicated Backup Server storage options: 500 GB, 1TB or 1.5TB.  The feature-rich backup solution offers a perfect fit for small to large businesses with mission-critical, intense data storage needs.

New General Managers:  Expanding its management team, the company announced the appointment of two new leaders for its advanced services and core hosting businesses. Jeff Nelson leads the advanced services business, while Todd Mitchell joined the company to lead the core hosting marketing component.
 
Network Video Tour:  To provide customers with an inside look at its sophisticated network, the company introduced a video tour that demonstrates its unsurpassed network capacity and speed with instant scalability; and parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network routing and switching architecture.

Awards – The Planet won key industry placements, validating its industry leadership:  the Deloitte Fast Tech 50; the Computer Reseller News Fast Growth list and the Inc. 5000 roster.

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 2.8 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.