PSINet Enters Austria

Moving east from its latest acquisition last week in Spain, PSINet Inc.
Tuesday took its travelling shopping spree to Austria with the purchase of Austrian ISPs CSO.Net and Netwing.

The two companies will be combined and renamed PSINet Austria. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

CSO.Net connectivity and Web hosting customers include German television corporation ARD, Novell and the Austrian Chamber of Export.
Netwing serves a mix of consumers and businesses.

“The Austrian market is poised to grow at a faster pace than many other
countries in Europe,” said Harry Hobbs, president of PSINet Europe. “We intend to increase our presence here by bringing our suite of industry-leading Internet services and applications to this market.”

The ISP now has full coverage of northern Austria, and now intends to expand into the south.

PSINet’s presence in Vienna also positions the fast-growing ISP for future growth into Eastern Europe, according to Hobbs.

The company has averaged more than two ISP purchases a month in its quest to be ranked as one of the top five ISPs in each of the world’s 20 major markets. It now enlists 600 POPs worldwide.

PSINet last week reported its earnings, beating analyst estimates. The company is expected to break even this year.

Chairman and Chief Executive William Schrader said the positive results
would allow the company to continue focusing on building more data centers, buying more fiber, and making more acquisitions.

In the second quarter, PSINet acquired 10 ISPs for a total of $75 million. In the next three years, Schrader expects the company to spend more than $500 million on similar ISP shopping excursions.