Web Hosting Business Solutions Firm, Earthlink, to Join Helio Venture
Posted by Webhost - 28/09/07 at 10:09 pmWeb hosting solutions and ISP company, EarthLink Business Solutions, a division of EarthLink Inc., has confirmed a preliminary agreement for SK Telecom to fund as much as $270 Million in a Helio joint venture.
EarthLink, Inc. confirmed the announcement by SK Telecom that the South Korean company will invest up to $270 million in Helio, their wireless voice and data services joint venture.
Rolla P. Huff, CEO and President of EarthLink remarked, ”We are very pleased that with SK Telecom’s funding, Helio will be able to move forward with its innovative business plan without the need for further investment by EarthLink, while continuing to allow our company to have a substantial ownership interest in Helio’s future. We believe this is good news for EarthLink shareholders and is consistent with our statements over the past two months.”
Helio ended August with 130,000 subscribers, and expects to end the year with between 200,000 and 250,000 subscribers and revenue of $140 - $170 million. Helio expects a full year net loss of $ (340) - $ (360) million. Helio continues to carve out a unique space in the wireless market. Through the introduction of arguably the most complete messaging device on the market in Ocean, and the market’s thinnest folder in Fin, over a dozen industry firsts in one year, and market-driving advanced 3G mobile services, Helio lets people stay in touch more than ever. Built for consumers who have mobile at the center of their lives, Helio continues to post growth and usage metrics of its core services far above industry averages in most areas. EarthLink and SK Telecom are currently in discussions to amend their existing agreements to reflect the additional investment by SK Telecom and their future governance of Helio. The amendments are not yet completed and further details will not be released until the agreements are finalized.
Recently, has debuted a new subscription service which guarantees the number of online clicks, or visitors to business websites. Traffic Builder is a 12-month term product that guarantees delivery of up to 4,800 clicks a year. EarthLink Business Solutions offers six plans that start at $66.95 a month, with no setup fees. EarthLink Business Solutions develops and optimizes search terms, creates ad copy, and then loads it across its network of search engine giants such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. NWhen an Internet searcher types in a keyword, the businesses’ ads show up adjacent to the search results on the page.
According to the company, business customers receive monthly performance email messages. If the website attracts more than the guaranteed number of clicks, there are no charges for additional clicks. On the other hand, if an account underperforms, EarthLink Business Solutions proactively modifies the editorial content, keywords, generic and geographical search criteria, and automatically uploads changes to the search engines, guaranteeing results for each service package.
With the recently upgraded platform, EarthLink Business Solutions web hosting customers now get 25 MySQL databases that can each store up to 200 megabytes of data as a standard offering. MySQL databases enable popular features to web sites, such as message boards, e-commerce stores, blogs, guest books, and more. Users also get access to EarthLink’s award winning e-mail features including spamBlocker, e-mail anti-virus, WebMail, and more. Another new feature lets mailbox owners store files on the business’s web site using FTP Dropboxes, for ease of use.
EarthLink offers its web hosting business customers value-added tools for designing web sites, monitoring site visitor traffic, and encrypting sensitive information EarthLink Business Solutions is the business services unit of Atlanta- based EarthLink Inc. Together with New Edge Networks, EarthLink Business Solutions is a total business communications solutions provider. It is a single source provider for businesses, offering high-speed Internet access, web hosting, ecommerce, remote access to VPNs, and fully managed private wide area networks. Customers include single-location businesses as well as midsize and large enterprises with complex network requirements throughout the United States. EarthLink Business Solutions has offices in Atlanta, Vancouver, Wash., and Pasadena, California.
