January 15, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Houston-based web hosting provider EV1Servers, formerly a dial up Internet Service Provider (ISO), takes the name of The Planet (http://www.theplanet.com) as of today. The company merged with the Planet mid-2006. The merger cost an estimated $175 million investment raised through venture capital.
Since its merger with EV1Servers, the Planet regards itself as the world's largest private dedicated hosting company, generating $110 million in annual revenue through around 22,000 business customers and 2.8 million hosted websites. The company has more that 40,000 Dell servers at its Houston and Dallas data centers.
"I believe that we can become a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar business in four years without any acquisitions," Planet President and CEO Doug Erwin said. "I want to be the gorilla in the small to medium-size business world." Although Mr. Erwin has stated an objective to take the Planet public at some stage in future, industry analysts suggest that this is unlikely in the near future.
