Web.com

Web.com Group, Inc.
Type of site
 Public
Traded as NASDAQ: WEB
Founded 1997
Headquarters 12808 Gran Bay Parkway W.
Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Key people David L. Brown, Chairman, President, and CEO [1]
Industry Internet
Products Websites
Website design
Website hosting
Internet marketing
Lead generation
eCommerce
Revenue Increase $106.5 million USD (2014)[2]
Operating income Increase $10.32 million USD (2014)(GAAP)[2]
Employees 2,200 (2015)[3]
Website Web.com
Alexa rank Negative increase 8,404 (March 2015)[4]

Web.com Group, Inc. is a provider of Web services catering to small and medium-sized businesses. As of December 2014, Web.com had over 3.3 million subscribers.[5] It is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

Company history and acquisitions

The Web.com Group was formed as a result of the merger of Web.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: WEB)[6] and Website Pros, Inc. (WSP, NASDAQ: WSPI).[7]

Website Pros was founded in 1999 by Darin Brannan with a goal of becoming the largest nationwide website design and related value-add services company to the small and mid-sized market in a subscription model (SaaS). The idea was to provide these services at 1/10 the cost and time of that offered by thousands of small web design shops dominating the cottage industry. It went public in 2005.

The company was initially funded with $65 million from Norwest Venture Partners, Crosspoint Ventures, Chase, Verizon (Bell Atlantic), Office Depot, and Dell; and subsequently by Insight Venture Partners just prior to its IPO. The company used a portion of this initial money to acquire both the SaaS sitebuilder platform company (first in the market), and the servicing infrastructure company (technical call center), Atlantic Teleservices Inc. (founded and CEO’d by David Brown). The Company recruited a professional management team and board (senior officers from Office Depot, Kmart and Intel among others) to begin executing on the operational and sales plan.

As the market (pre-bubble) was flush with cash, it could afford both a direct sales (through two Kinko’s-like sales offices) and indirect channel sales strategy. When the market downturn hit in 2000, the company quickly shut down the direct sales model and focused exclusively on the less expensive indirect channel strategy, consolidated operations in Florida (where the call center was acquired), and let go of the expensive senior management team in favor of a leaner operation to survive the post .com bubble era.

David Brown was asked to return to the Company as CEO and pursue the vision with the new leaner operations. The company was successful in landing enterprise channel partners and in focusing on the fundamentals of building this business model. The company completed several acquisitions along the way, including: NetObjects, Innuity, Leads.com, Renovation Experts, Submit-a-Website, eBoz, and 1ShoppingCart.[8][9] In 2007, Website Pros acquired Web.com and the combined company changed their name to Web.com Group in 2008.

Web.com was originally started as Micron Electronics and sold computers mostly to government entities. Under the leadership of CEO Joel Kocher, Micron shuttered the PC business and entered the web hosting business through a series of acquisitions. After its largest acquisition, MicronPC changed its name to Interland in 2000.[10] While the company grew to be the largest hosting company in the world, its growth stalled after the company stopped making acquisitions. Kocher was replaced by a turn-around team led by Jeffrey Stibel in 2005.[11] Stibel changed the name from Interland to Web.com .[12][13] and quickly turned the company around and delivered record organic revenue growth and led the company to its largest subscriber count in the company’s history until it merged with Website Pros in 2007.[14]

At the time of the merger with Website Pros, the company's stock closed at $7.15, which represented more than a threefold increase since new management joined in August 2005.[15][16][17][18]

Web.com Group sold NetObjects Fusion in early 2009 and acquired Solid Cactus in late 2009 from Scott Sanfilippo and Joe Palko. The company purchased Register.com for $135 million in 2010 and Network Solutions in 2011 for $405 million.[19]

In 2012, Web.com acquired naming rights to the PGA Tour's developmental tour, replacing Nationwide Insurance and re-branding it as the Web.com Tour.[20]

In 2014, Web.com acquired UK based business directory service Scoot [21]

Web.com announced that it had completed its acquisition of Yodle on March 9, 2016.

References

  1. ↑ "Board of Directors". Web.com Group, Inc. Retrieved 2015-01-15.
  2. 1 2 "Web.com Reports Second Quarter 2014 Financial Results". Web.com Group, Inc. Retrieved 2014-08-14.
  3. ↑ "Web.com Investor Relations Fact Sheet - About Web.com" (PDF). Web.com Group, Inc. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  4. ↑ "Web.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  5. ↑ http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/WSPI/0x0x818762/1D1F889B-3011-47E7-840B-059D09783C03/2014_Annual_Report.pdf
  6. ↑ "Web.com Announces Ticker Symbol Change to WEB (NASDAQ:WWWW)". ir.web.com. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
  7. ↑ "Website Pros Completes Transaction With Web.com". Website Pros. Retrieved October 1, 2007.
  8. ↑ "Website Pros Acquires LEADS.com and eBoz, Inc.". Website Pros. Retrieved 2007-07-26.
  9. ↑ "Netobjects Inc • PRE 14C • For 9/30/01". Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, D.C. Retrieved 2006-10-01.
  10. ↑ Martin, Anya (2005-08-02). "CEO muscles Interland to success". The BizJournal. Retrieved 2007-02-05.
  11. ↑ "Interland Names CEO, Kocher Steps Down". The WHIR. 2005-08-02. Retrieved 2007-02-05.
  12. ↑ "Interland to Become Web.com". Ecommerce-guide.com. Jupitermedia Corporation. December 30, 2005. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  13. ↑ "Interland Will Change Its Name to Web.com". Netcraft. Netcraft Ltd. December 29, 2005. Retrieved 2008-07-07.
  14. ↑ Taulli, Tom (2006-05-09). "Web.com's Extreme Makeover". Motley Fool. Retrieved 2007-02-05.
  15. ↑ "Historical Stock Chart". Nasdaq.com. 2007-02-02. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
  16. ↑ "Website Pros Announces Initial Public Offering of Common Stock". Website Pros. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
  17. ↑ "IPO Company Profile for Website Pros (WSPI)". Renaissance Capital. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
  18. ↑ "Website Pros Increases Series A Funding Round to $17 Million from Insight Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners". Website Pros. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
  19. ↑ Flook, Bill (2011-08-03). "Network Solutions sold to Web.com for $405M and stock". American City Business Journals. Retrieved 2011-11-29.
  20. ↑ "Web.com signs deal to be new umbrella sponsor". PGA Tour. June 27, 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
  21. ↑ http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/web-com-acquires-uk-online-business-directory-scoot
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