The Planet Reports Record Fourth Quarter

January 29, 2008; 02:32 AM

HOUSTON, Jan. 28, 2008 – The Planet, the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today discussed its results for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2007.  The Planet provides quarterly updates to its customers, business partners and prospects with information relative to new initiatives and its progress.

“2007 was a good year, and our fourth quarter began to yield the benefits from many months of investing in the business,” said Chairman and CEO Douglas J. Erwin.  “We closed 2007 with strong results across the company based on our intense focus on customer experience.  This was our first year under a single name, and by any measure it was one marked by tremendous success.  We have made monumental changes across every operating unit to improve our customer-facing operations.

“We doubled network capacity this past year and made upgrades to support 10GB speeds, along with interconnecting Houston and Dallas.  We added 25,000 square feet of raised flooring to our data center footprint, along with expanded backup generator capacity in both cities.  For another year, we added to our continued string of successes with no power events.  Our new and enriched call center is now fully operational, and we’re already experiencing improvements in customer satisfaction.  Newly initiated advanced training and certifications for our support teams now provide clearly defined career paths.  Finally, based on customer requests, we’re well on our way toward SAS70 compliance.  Across the board, we’ve raised the bar, setting the stage for 2008 to be another banner year for The Planet,” Erwin concluded.

            “The Planet again produced a record quarter both in revenues and servers sold, continuing its inception-to-date string of sequential record quarters,” said Chief Financial Officer Kevin Klausmeyer.  “We experienced the highest sequential quarterly growth in the past two years, which on an annualized rate is north of 20 percent.  Margins remain healthy despite continued investments in every area of our business, all of which provide competitive advantages that yield returns to the business.”

Fourth Quarter Highlights

Record Transactions:  In the fourth quarter, 2,200 new customers leased servers in the company’s six world-class data centers.  This was the greatest number of quarterly new customer additions for 2007.    

StatCounter Announcement:  Dublin-based StatCounter, which provides its 1.5 million global customers with free Web site traffic analysis, joined forces with The Planet to announce the addition of the 100^th server to its private rack profile.  StatCounter founder Aodhan Cullen was named by BusinessWeek as its Young European Entrepreneur of the Year for 2007.

New Consolidated Reseller Program:  The company launched its first reseller program under the new corporate moniker.  The three-tiered program provides Web hosting resellers with multiple options for building their businesses.  Resellers gain access to a specially designed portal for placing orders, which also includes marketing materials, photography and white papers to support their customer outreach.    

Microsoft Small Business Server® White Paper:  The company published a new white paper, based on research conducted by Frost & Sullivan’s Stratecast Partners, which details wide-ranging economic benefits and business value for system integrators and their SMB customers.  The research outlines how integrators who partner with The Planet can increase their profits by more than 20 percent per customer, without incurring upfront costs.  The Planet offers a complete enterprise-class “IT portfolio-in-a-box” that 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.

Expanded KVM Additions:   Based on extensive customer feedback, the company added the Lantronix Spider KVM to its entire product portfolio.  Previously available only on private racks, KVM – keyboard, video and mouse – allows customers to remotely install software, and manage the operating system and complete software stack from the convenience of their own offices.  Customers retain complete management and control of their servers at the console level to simplify troubleshooting.

Extended Server Configurations:   The Planet extended full hardware and software configurability for its most affordable entry-level servers, providing customers with additional RAM or hard drive upgrade options to satisfy their power requirements.

Executive Appointment:   The company announced the addition of Stan O. Barber as vice president, network operations.  Barber is responsible for the company’s Network Operations Center (NOC) and its abuse department, which oversees issues related to violations of its acceptable use policies. 

Keynote Speaking Engagement:  At the ISPCON Fall 2007 conference, Chairman and CEO Douglas J. Erwin delivered the keynote address titled “Beyond Hosting:  Unlocking Profits with On Demand IT Infrastructure for the SMB.”

Awards – Adding to its broad array of awards, The Planet ranked #81 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list for North America.  The annual survey recognizes the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in the nation based on consolidated results from its regional Fast 50 events.  The win capped a series of awards during the year, including ranking #12 on the Fast 50 list for Texas; the Computer Reseller News Fast Growth list; and the Inc. 5000 roster.

Web Site Visitors – The company capped 2007 with 1.6 million visitors to its new Web site.  In the fourth quarter, the site generated an average of 5,300 visits per day.

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 3.1 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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