Dedicated Server Reviews

Last week Universo Online S.A. (UOL) acquired the "clients" of web hosting company Digiweb, also of Sao Paulo, Brazil. In November, UOL also acquired the web hosting "clients" of Plug In another Brazilian firm.

The importance:  UOL is now the third-largest provider of web-hosting services company in Brazil.

UOL did not mention the "third largest" part the Plug In acquisition --- letting me believe that Digiweb was a fairly large deal.

I check out UOL - Basically an Internet/media powerhouse. They are vertical, horizontal, diagonal and the karma sutra all rolled into one. You really have to read the corporate bio --- Brazilian portal with 1.4 billion page-views a month, 1.7 million content paying subscribers, 1 million broadband customers…and now the THIRD LARGEST web hosting company in Brazil (Which I may add has a population of 184 million).

They want to collect the tolls on the electronic highway...including all entrances and exits. Someone has to collect.

The UOL financials…some great info…

• My favorite part: "The Company had no outstanding loans or financings at the end of the 4Q07". (Same position as Microsoft)
• They have a lot of cash - $284 million USD.
• 2007 EBITDA - $91.8 million USD - a fantastic 29% of net revenues.
  

The largest shareholder (41%) is the San Palo newspaper owner Folhapar.

UOL stock has dropped some 60% in the past 12 months...but the one thing I know about newspapers, they are long term players with long term visions. 

And the movie Brazil... 

More about Tom:

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Web hosting is still a relatively new market and its concept remains unknown to many. Walk down any street and ask a few people what web hosting means and you'll receive a variety of unsure answers. Because of that alone, you can imagine that the pool of web-host-worthy applicants to a tech job is small. Some believe that there will be a shortage of tech skilled workers in the next ten years, but I don't see it this way. Imagine all of the children growing up in the now flourishing Web 3.0 world. They grew up watching movies on a laptop in their room, they'll never know anything else. Netflix. Vonage. iPods. I am sure many of these children will choose to go into the IT field. Everything that we have grown accustomed to, or were forced to change, will be completely natural and inspiring for them. 

As for the present time in the hosting field, our collective results vary. Many entry-level employees at web hosting companies may only have call center backgrounds. Some of them may have websites of their own but were never sure of how web hosting really worked. Depending on how fast they learn and their initiative, these new "apprentices" can eventually be masters and loyal members of your team. 

How many of your own employees had previous hosting experience and how many are currently under apprenticeship? If you can say that everyone in your staff has hosting experience in the hosting field, your cherry picking may cause you to miss out on bright team players.