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The Planet Adds 1,400 Customers in 4Q08
The brutal economic conditions in late 2008 don't appear to have slowed The Planet, which says it added 1,400 new customers and had record earnings in the fourth quarter.
Rich Miller
January 26, 2009
2 Min Read
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theplanet-hq
The Houston headquarters building for The Planet.
The brutal economic conditions in late 2008 don't appear to have slowed The Planet. The Houston company says it added 1,400 new customers for its dedicated servers and managed hosting services in the fourth quarter.
The Planet didn't disclose its revenue numbers, but its performance was notable on several fronts. In the midst of an historic credit crunch, it arranged a new $45 million credit facility with Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America. Its strong customer growth also highlighted the company's resilience, coming just months after a major data center outage following an electrical explosion.
“We had a record year and a record quarter,” said Chief Financial Officer Kevin Klausmeyer. “Our cash flows remain healthy, and, in fact, were stronger in the fourth quarter than in all prior quarters, despite a difficult economic climate. We reached high-water marks in virtually all of our efficiency metrics, as a result of continued process improvements and investment in our systems. Our EBITDA came in right on plan for the year and the quarter, and our balance sheet is very strong.”
“Across every unit in the company, we made significant gains," added Chairman and CEO Doug Erwin. "Within customer service, data center operations, network development, marketing and product management, our metrics indicate extraordinary improvements."
Here's are some of the items the company highlighted in today's announcement:
The company added 1,400 customers, bringing the total to 25,500. That compares with growth of 1,600 customers in the third quarter. The greatest growth came from current customers, who continued to upgrade and expand their server portfolios. The Planet now hosts more than 14.5 million Web sites.
The company announced plans for a new 86,000 square foot data center in Plano, Texas, bringing its raised floor footprint to 216,000 square feet. The new facility will support The Planet’s expanding colocation business and be operational in May 2009.
The Planet announced the opening of the last phase of its Dallas D6 data center, which adds 12,000 square feet to its operations.
To improve network performance, new nodes were added on the East and West Coasts of the United States in Equinix colocation facilities located in San Jose, Calif., and Ashburn, Va. The changes enhance network performance and latency for customers.
The Planet introduced the EdgeCast Content Delivery Network (CDN) offering customers cost benefits and flexibility for controlling their own CDNs.
“Despite the challenging economic environment, we are confident that we will again set new standards for our operations and deliver solid revenue growth in 2009," said Erwin.
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