Acquisition makes PEER 1 Hosting No. 2 for UK SMEs
Vancouver, BC, June 6, 2012 – PEER 1 Hosting (TSX: PIX), the global web hosting provider, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares in the capital of NetBenefit (UK) Limited, a leading UK-based managed hosting company and division of London-based Group NBT Limited, for £25 million (US$38.5 million) in cash.
For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012, NetBenefit is forecast to generate approximately US$12.5 million in revenue and US$3.8 million in EBITDA. The company has operations in UK and France serving approximately 700 customers.
The acquisition firmly positions PEER 1 Hosting as the number two provider of SME Managed Hosting services in the UK and creates a platform to support their growth in Europe. In the last 12 months, PEER 1 Hosting grew annualized run-rate revenues by 100% in EMEA.
"This deal strengthens our position as a full solution provider in the UK, which sees us now become a compliant PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Level 1 provider with a datacenter in London for customers demanding low latency hosting," said Dominic Monkhouse, Managing Director EMEA of PEER 1 Hosting. "NetBenefit's presence in France also allows us to extend our outstanding customer experience into Europe."
Integration of NetBenefit's two existing datacenters into PEER 1 Hosting's high performance FastFiber Network™ will create significant opportunities for additional peering and transit service revenues. As part of the agreement, Group NBT will become a direct customer of PEER1 Hosting. The merger of a large number of highly skilled staff also means PEER 1 Hosting customers will have access to an outstanding pool of technical talent.
"PEER 1 Hosting has a great reputation for customer service and as an outstanding employer," said Gary McIlraith, Chief Executive of Group NBT Limited, owners of NetBenefit. "The breadth and scale of their cloud offering will bring increased choice for our loyal customer base. We are 100% confident that this is good news for us, our customers and staff."
PEER 1 Hosting was recently recognized as one of the ‘Top 25 Best Workplaces, small business category' by the Great Place to Work® Institute.
About PEER 1 Hosting
PEER 1 Hosting is one of the world's leading web hosting providers. The company is built on two obsessions: Ping & People. Ping, represents its commitment to best-in-breed technology, founded on a high performance 10Gbps FastFiber Network™ connected by 18 state-of-the-art datacenters, 22 points-of-presence and 10 colocation facilities throughout North America and Europe. People, represents its commitment to delivering outstanding customer service to over 12,000 customers worldwide, backed by a 100 percent uptime guarantee and 24x7x365 FirstCall Support™. PEER 1 Hosting's portfolio includes Managed Hosting, Colocation and Dedicated Servers under the ServerBeach brand, and Cloud Services through Zunicore. Founded in 1999, the company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with European operations headquartered in Southampton, UK. PEER 1 Hosting shares are traded on the TSX under the symbol PIX. For more information visit: www.peer1hosting.co.uk.
About NetBenefit
Established in 1995, NetBenefit is one of the UK's most experienced managed hosting companies. We specialize in providing tailored managed hosting solutions that deliver security, resilience and online performance for business critical websites, applications and online advertising campaigns.
We have evolved with the internet to our position today as a leading provider of bespoke, flexible managed hosting solutions to well-known brands such as New Statesman and British Red Cross. While remaining small enough to be committed to the success of all our customers.
Our team consists of experienced consultants, pre-sales, project managers, technical architects and engineers, all of whom are here to help guarantee the online success of your business. We are focused on delivering hosting peace of mind so that our customers can focus on what they do best.
Forward Looking Statements
Statements in this release relating to matters that are not historical fact are forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions, changes in technology, reliance on third party manufacturing, managing rapid growth, global sales risks, limited intellectual property protection and other risks and uncertainties described in PEER 1 Hosting's public filings with securities regulatory authorities.
Media Contact:
Rajan Sodhi
(604) 909-6407
[email protected]