ABOV soaring, up 6. News today:
Monday March 22, 7:31 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
AboveNet Forms Strategic Joint Venture With Leading Austrian Firm To Deliver Mission-Critical Internet Connectivity
Austria Internet Service Exchange Will Speed Austrian Online Traffic, Improve Connections to Eastern Europe
SAN JOSE, Calif., March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- AboveNet(TM) Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: ABOV - news), the architect of a global one-hop network that brings together high-bandwidth content sites and ISPs in a centralized co-location facility, today announced it has formed a strategic joint venture with Raiffeisen Rechenzentrum (RRZ) to build a regional Internet Service Exchange(TM) (ISX(TM)) in Vienna, Austria. The RRZ is a subsidiary of the Raiffeisen Group, Austria's largest private organization with over 70,000 employees and 200 companies, which includes market leaders in banking, insurance, construction, media and Internet business. The Austrian ISX will provide a robust, scalable Internet infrastructure, designed to handle the growing online traffic in Europe. Today's announcement marks the first strategic joint venture in AboveNet's European expansion strategy, which the company announced earlier this month, and is a first step to serve the German speaking countries with a population of almost 100 million people.
AboveNet selected RRZ to team with because of their leadership position in Austria. Vienna was chosen because it is a leading city in the German speaking markets and is home to many International organizations, and because Vienna has a high Internet penetration, it offers a large market potential. The Raiffeisen Group operates the largest private data network in Austria and RRZ owns the leading data and computing center in Austria. The Raiffeisen Group also has an extensive reach into Eastern Europe with subsidiaries in most Eastern European capitals. AboveNet anticipates that this relationship will be a strong base to leverage their expansion into Eastern Europe.
Through this alliance, AboveNet will provide the network architecture model, network intelligence and software technology necessary to create the Austrian ISX facility. AboveNet Austria will initially be based in RRZ's world class facilities while an additional facility is being built. RRZ will provide the network hardware and management services for the ISX, and will market the ISX to Internet content and connectivity providers in Austria. NETWAY, an affiliate of RRZ, is the leading Austrian ISP and will become a major customer, as well as a sales and marketing partner of AboveNet Austria. This facility also will serve as a gateway for building more economical and reliable Internet connections to Eastern Europe.
''Our objective in extending our ISX model around the world is to provide a global solution to the problem of poor Internet performance and congestion,'' said Warren J. Kaplan, President and Chief Operating Officer of AboveNet.
''AboveNet is working to form joint ventures with experienced Internet management teams and strategic partners to create regional ISXs in the major business centers across Europe,'' said Dr. Paul Steiner, Vice President, International-Europe for AboveNet. ''The Raiffeisen Group, with its leadership position in the Austrian market and powerful media and communications competence, offers an ideal entree into the Austrian market and, long term, expand into Eastern Europe. It is also key to reach complete coverage of the German markets.''
''We are pleased to work with AboveNet because the ISX model gives us something no other company has -- a unique ability to reduce Internet congestion and improve performance and reliability,'' said Wilfried Pruschak, General Manager of RRZ. ''The new Austrian ISX will help pave the way for continued Internet growth in Austria.''
The European Regional ISX facilities will deliver to local communities a fast, reliable and scalable Internet solution for mission-critical and high bandwidth applications. These world class facilities will co-locate both content providers and ISPs together to deliver superior connectivity for local access and a direct link into AboveNet's global network. ISX members will benefit from improved Internet performance and reliability as a result of the company's extensive global peering arrangements with more than 210 major ISP networks.
About AboveNet Communications Inc.
AboveNet Communications, Inc. is a premier provider of Internet connectivity and co-location solutions for high bandwidth and mission-critical applications. AboveNet is the architect of the Internet Service Exchange (ISX) -- a world class network that provides co-location services for Content Providers and ISPs interested in developing business and strategic partnerships. The AboveNet Global One-Hop Network(TM) is designed to deliver fast, scalable and reliable connections to the Internet and improves the Internet experience for all end-users. With its Tier 1 status and ISO 9002 certification, AboveNet is positioned to serve the global community of the Internet. For more information on AboveNet and its service offerings visit the company's Web site at above.net.
AboveNet, Internet Service Exchange, ISX and AboveNet Global One-Hop Network are trademarks of AboveNet Communications, Inc. All other company or brand names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward looking statements within the meaning of section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements regarding the company's expectations, beliefs, hopes, intention or strategies regarding the future. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include risks related to intense competition, the emerging market for co-location and connectivity services, the uncertainty of the acceptance of the Company's services, network scalability and other factors and risks discussed in the company's registration statement on form S-1, as amended, initially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 10, 1998 and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities Exchange Commission. |
