Internet Services Companies Data393, Huge Hosting and Ventures Online Complete Three-Way Merger [January 13, 2004]

DENVER, Jan 13, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via Comtex/ -- Three of Denver's independent Internet services companies have announced they are merging to create one of the region's most significant managed Web hosting, co-location and managed applications providers.

The new company combines co-location company Data393 with two of Denver's leading Web hosting companies, Huge Hosting and Ventures Online. The hosting companies bring more than 10,000 customers to Data393's high-end facility, which last fall was chosen by Hughes Network Systems as a "point of presence" for its next-generation broadband satellite system.

Data393 founding CEO Lee Woodward will serve as chief executive for the new company, which plans to formally announce what it will be called within the next few weeks.

The founders of all three companies agree the three-way merger is good news for business customers and the region's battered telecommunications community.

"Both Huge Hosting and Ventures Online were considering moving their hosting operations to Data393's facilities," said Huge Hosting president Alex Burney. "But then we saw a unique opportunity to create a comprehensive, technically superior services provider that gives customers the stability and personal focus of a locally owned company."

"All three companies have already established their ability to compete with and outperform the industry giants out there," Burney said. "As a single company we're giving Colorado a new telecommunications company it can be proud of."

The three companies will combine support staffs and back-office systems to create a stronger, more financially sound service provider based in a Southeast Denver office building that Data393 owns, and where it operates its 6,200-square-foot, state-of-the-art co-location facility.

"Data393's facilitates are as good as any Web hosting business and its customers could want or need," said John Burns, CEO of Ventures Online. "We get excellent fiber connections from eight Tier-1 Internet service providers, enabling us to deliver our customers' web content at maximum speed. This new company is in a tremendous position to host even the most complex, data-rich web sites with complete reliability, security and responsiveness."

Data393 is located at 393 Inverness Parkway in Englewood, Colorado. For more information, visit www.data393.com or call Erik Porter, Co-Founder and Vice President of Sales, at (303) 268-1483.