Interland Beats Analyst Estimates and Names New President and COO

The fourth-quarter news for Web hosting firm Interland wasn’t as bad as previously predicted, as the company confirmed today that losses for the last quarter of 2000 would range between 42 to 44 cents per-share, squeaking under previous analysts’ predictions of 46 cents per-share. Interland also announced a major promotion in its senior management team.

Interland said it expects revenues for last quarter to fall somewhere between $10.4 million to $10.6 million, an increase from 1999’s fourth quarter of $3.8 million. Interland ended 2000 with $58 million in cash and securities on hand, as well as $34 million in available credit.

“We’ve just had a very calculated and focused strategy on expense line items, focusing ourselves on profitability,” said Nancy DeYoung, Director of Investor Relations. “We want to grow as intelligently as we can, so we’re doing some things on the technology side, trying to optimize our technical end, which not only make our costs go down, but improves our customer’s experience, too.”

Interland plans to become profitable by December, and according to a company statement, it will raise prices on various services in the first quarter of this year, while consolidating its Western European operations by closing its Amsterdam office, which has a staff of about 40 people.

Interland also announced the promotion of David N. Gill to COO and President of Interland. Gill, who previously worked as Interland’s CFO, was named to the position of president that before had been filled by CEO Ken Gavranovic. Gavranovic will remain as CEO and will concentrate on guiding the company’s overall strategy. Interland had not named anyone to the COO position until today, and the firm will conduct an internal and external search for someone to fill the CFO position.

“David’s promotion to president and COO is a great move for Interland,” DeYoung said. “Over the past couple of months, we’ve really enhanced our senior management team, and the announcement of David as president and COO is basically in line with what we’ve been trying to do all along, which is strengthening our senior management positions.”