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Exodus Communications

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Exodus Communications
IndustryInternet services
Founded1994; 30 years ago (1994)[1]
FounderBV Jagadeesh, KB Chandrashekar
Defunct2001 (2001)
FateChapter 11 bankruptcy; purchased by Cable & Wireless
Key people
Ellen Hancock

Exodus Communications, the world's largest web hosting provider at the time, was a data center provider that provided retail and commercial server colocation and was an Internet service provider to dot-com businesses. Exodus went public in 1998 amid massive business growth (40% quarterly growth over 13 quarters) and achieved a peak market value of approximately $32 billion US dollars in 2000. Along with many of its customers, Exodus experienced the bursting of the dot-com bubble and declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2001. Exodus was purchased by Cable and Wireless.[2]

The company created and enabled many "firsts" for the "modern Internet", including the first "storage as a service" cloud service branded as DataVault in partnership with Cisco systems and Sun Microsystems. This was years before Amazon S3 came into existence. The tape backup portion of the DataVault business unit was acquired by Sanrise Inc.[3] Exodus Communications built and operated the first truly global anycast Domain Name System in 1999, using its globally deployed BGP autonomous system.

Exodus acquired American Information Systems, Cohesive, Arca Systems, and Network-1's professional services division. In December 1999, Exodus headed by Ellen Hancock CEO acquired Global OnLine Japan (GOL), Japan's first ISP,[4] launched in 1994 by a Canadian entrepreneur, Roger J. Boisvert together with his wife, Yuriko Hiraguri.[5] Exodus opened its Tokyo IDC in April 2000 together with Nomura Research Institute. In September 2000, the company bought GlobalCenter, Global Crossing's web hosting unit, for $6.5 billion in stock. By the time the deal closed in January 2001, the stock was only worth $1.95 billion.[6]

In January 2003, Cable and Wireless Japan sold Global OnLine Japan to Japanese VoIP operator Fusion Communications,[7] merging its existing consumer Internet and VoIP efforts to create Fusion Network Services. The Fusion group was later acquired by Rakuten Group.[8]

In March 2004, Cable and Wireless America, including the Exodus assets, were acquired by SAVVIS.[9] Cable and Wireless Japan sold its IDC operations to the SoftBank Group in February 2005.[10]

References

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  1. ^ "Exodus subcontractor proposal". ICANN Archive. 1999.
  2. ^ "Cable & Wireless to Buy Exodus Assets, Contracts". LA Times. 1 December 2001. Retrieved 18 January 2018.
  3. ^ "Sanrise to acquire DataVault storage service". Storagesearch.com. 23 January 2001. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  4. ^ "Exodus to Acquire ISP Global OnLine Japan - InternetNews". InternetNews. 1999-11-25. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
  5. ^ "Daring to Be Different -- Tokyo's GOL: An Idiosyncratic Success Story | Japan -- Business People Technology | www.japaninc.com". www.japaninc.com. 8 November 2006. Retrieved 2020-03-20.
  6. ^ DOUGLASS, ELIZABETH (October 14, 2001). "Global's Lost Connection". Los Angeles Times.
  7. ^ "News Release 2003 FUSION COMMUNICATIONS CORP". Fusioncom.co.jp. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
  8. ^ "Rakuten press release".
  9. ^ "Medium Business to Enterprise - Business Solutions by CenturyLink". www4.savvis.net. Retrieved 2018-10-28.
  10. ^ "Completed acquisition of Cable and Wireless IDC | SoftBank Group Corp". SoftBank Group. 17 February 2005. Retrieved 2020-03-20.