In a move to accelerate its entry into the
world’s second-largest economy and expand its international customer
base, Exodus Communications has announced that it will acquire Tokyo-based ISP Global OnLine Japan.
Exodus, a leading provider of enterprise Internet
hosting and managed services in the US and Europe, said on Tuesday that
it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Global OnLine Japan
(GOL) and will establish a Japanese subsidiary to take over operation of
GOL’s services by the end of December.
Roger Boisvert, GOL’s president and CEO, will become the Exodus Japanese
subsidiary’s president and representative director.
“The GOL team is
excited to join the Exodus international family,” said Boisvert. “Our customers will benefit from Exodus’ Internet expertise, worldwide
backbone, advanced network infrastructure, managed service offerings, and
world-class customer service.”
GOL, Japan’s largest privately held Internet solutions company, has been
providing services to individual and corporate Internet users since
September 1994. GOL’s extensive network includes dial-up access points in
17 major Japanese cities and network exchange points with 38 Japanese
ISPs.
In addition to offering dial-up Internet connectivity for more than
20,000 individual subscribers, GOL provides Internet-related services,
including Website development and hosting, e-commerce business support,
systems integration, and intranet and SOHO solutions, for some 3,000
corporate clients.
“GOL is a proven leader in the Japanese Internet market,” said Ellen
Hancock, president and CEO of Exodus. “The addition of GOL enables us to
expand quickly into the Japanese marketplace and significantly enhance
our position as a worldwide leader in the complex web hosting market.”
In September, partially to support its Japanese expansion plans, Exodus
signed $105 million of international network capacity purchase agreements
with Global Crossing.
Among the 5.1G-bps of additional backbone capacity that Exodus acquired
were four STM-1 circuits connecting its Santa Clara headquarters with
Tokyo.
“The Asia-Pacific region is increasingly important to our existing
customer base and emerging as a base for high-growth Internet companies,”
said Bob Weingarten, general manager for Exodus Asia Pacific.
“The acquisition of GOL is the first step in establishing Exodus as the
leading provider of complex Web hosting services in the Asia-Pacific
region,” said Boisvert.
Although Exodus has not previously participated in the retail ISP
market, GOL’s Boisvert stressed that the Exodus Japanese subsidiary will
continue to offer Internet access for GOL’s dial-up customers.
“We intend to continue to provide our current clients with the
high-quality service they are accustomed to, while expanding our
capabilities to provide the complex web hosting solutions Exodus is known
for,” he added.
“Despite the acquisition, the GOL brand name will not disappear,”
Boisvert assured.
