Corporate | 16 May 2006 09:19

United Internet acquires UK webhosting specialist Fasthosts

Corporate-news transmitted by DGAP – a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— Press release United Internet acquires UK webhosting specialist Fasthosts Montabaur, May 16, 2006. United Internet AG, Montabaur, has acquired a 100% stake in the UK webhosting specialist Fasthosts Internet Ltd., Gloucester. The acquisition contracts were signed yesterday. The agreed purchase price is 61.5 million pounds in cash. With over 220,000 customer contracts, 300,000 websites and 750,000 domains, Fasthosts is a leading supplier on the UK webhosting market for end-users as well as for small and mid-size companies. Founded in 1999, the company has already been posting profits for several years. Fasthosts will remain an independent brand in the UK and retain its current management. United Internet has been active on the UK market since June 2000 via its 1&1 brand. 1&1 Internet Ltd. has been profitable since late 2003 and is now a leading player on the UK hosting market with over 300,000 customer contracts. “Whereas until now we have proved our ability to achieve fast organic growth also in foreign markets, the next step is to accelerate growth with our acquisition of Fasthosts,” says Ralph Dommermuth, CEO of United Internet AG. “We have thus further consolidated our position on the UK market. At the same time, Fasthosts will give us access to a highly efficient reseller network,” continues Dommermuth. With some 5,000 active resellers, Fasthosts currently operates one of the best developed reseller networks in the UK. “We were able to benefit from our experience in the UK market when establishing our 1&1 brand on the world’s largest hosting market – the USA,” adds Dommermuth. “We have also grown organically in the USA and are already among the country’s leading webhosters after just two years. We recently stepped up our US marketing budget once again, as we are currently achieving very good growth rates at acceptable customer acquisition costs. Despite this increase, however, we still aim to achieve profitability for the first time on a monthly basis during the course of the year,” announces Dommermuth. “In total, we are very satisfied with the development of our international webhosting business in the UK, France, Austria and the USA.” With over 5,3 million customer contracts, United Internet AG is one of the leading Internet Service Providers (ISP). In its “Product” segment, the Group’s value-added internet services and fast internet connections are directed at private users, small/home offices (SoHos) and small to mid-size enterprises (SMEs). These groups are served by the brands GMX, WEB.DE, 1&1 and Schlund+Partner. In addition to its “Product” business, the Group is also engaged in “Outsourcing” (via the brands InterNetX and twenty4help) as well as “Online Marketing” (via the brands AdLINK, affilinet and Sedo). (c)DGAP 16.05.2006 ————————————————————————— Language: English Issuer: United Internet AG Elgendorfer Straße 57 56410 Montabaur Deutschland Phone: +49 (0)260 296-1631 Fax: +49 (0)260 296-1013 email: Investor-Relations@United-Internet.de WWW: www.United-Internet.de ISIN: DE0005089031 WKN: 508903 indices: TecDAX Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, Stuttgart, München, Hamburg, Düsseldorf End of News DGAP News-Service —————————————————————————