EarthLink

EarthLink
EarthLink Inc.
Type Public (NASDAQ: ELNK)
Industry Internet & Communications
Founded 1994
Headquarters Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Key people Sky Dayton, Kevin M. O'Donnell, Kevin M Dotts, Rolla Huff
Products ISP
Revenue increaseUS$1.216 billion (2007)
Employees 576 (2010)[1]
Website EarthLink.net

EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), is an Internet service provider (ISP) headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It claims 1.94 million subscribers.[1]

Contents

Business

Part of the EarthLink World Headquarters in Atlanta.

EarthLink provides a variety of Internet connection types, including dial-up, DSL, satellite, and cable. Both dial-up and high speed Internet access are available nationwide. In addition to Internet access, EarthLink offers Web hosting, e-commerce services for individuals, small and medium-sized businesses. EarthLink also offers different types of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services.

In addition to selling the company's various Internet connections online and by phone, EarthLink operates retail kiosks in some Fry's Electronics stores, staffed by two to five representatives directly employed by EarthLink, rather than Fry's.[citation needed]

History

EarthLink was founded in 1994 by Sky Dayton at age 23. Dayton reportedly spent an entire week trying to configure his own computer for Internet access. He realized there was an opportunity to create a simple, user friendly ISP.

From a modest beginning of ten modems, the company has grown to include more than 2,000 POP numbers in the U.S., and more than 40,000 internationally.

On February 4, 2000, the company, then based in Pasadena, California,[2] merged with Atlanta-founded MindSpring, making it the second-largest ISP in the U.S., after AOL.[citation needed]

On December 7, 2001 Earthlink acquired OmniSky, a wireless provider.[3]

On June 10, 2002, EarthLink acquired PeoplePC, a value-priced dial-up service that has more dial-up access numbers than any other ISP (including AOL). PeoplePC's direct competitors are NetZero and Netscape.

In July 2005, EarthLink announced that it was closing the last of its in-house American call centers, though the company still has American call centers via out-source telecom companies.

EarthLink cut 2,600 jobs in 2003 and 2004[4] Although EarthLink has reduced its expenses from $283,357,000 in 2003 to $227,285,000 in 2005, their earnings are shrinking. In 2003, EarthLink reported revenues of $1,401,930,000, but by 2005, they were only $1,290,072,000.[5]

In October 2006, EarthLink reported its first quarterly loss in more than 2½ years. Revenue from dial-up customers dropped 16.8 percent as the company lost 320,001 of those customers from the previous year. The company predicted another loss in the fourth quarter of 2006 of $15–$25 million due to investment in Helio.[6]

In response to budgetary concerns, EarthLink began a major restructuring in late Summer 2007 which involved laying off half its employees and withdrawing from several product lines.[7]

EarthLink returned to profitability in the fourth quarter of 2007, posting free cash flow of $59 million and $71 million of EBITDA for the quarter.[8]

EarthLink acquired STS Telecom on 2nd March 2011. It announced that it will integrate STS Telecom into its newly established "EarthLink Business" division.[9]

Free WiFi initiative

In 2006, EarthLink worked with Philadelphia, San Francisco, Anaheim and nine other cities to deploy public Wi-Fi networks[citation needed]. It teamed up with Google in an effort to bring such a network to San Francisco.[citation needed] EarthLink saw citywide Wi-Fi as a way to compensate for the ongoing loss of dialup customers, and hoped to use its strong brand identity and established customer base to gain an edge in the market.[10]

EarthLink's municipal wireless efforts began to dissolve in late August 2007 when the financially ailing company said it was no longer willing to solely fund construction of city-wide wireless networks in San Francisco and 11 other cities.[11] The plan to build free wireless in San Francisco was formally scrapped by the city on September 12, 2007.[11] A project in Chicago had stopped cold, and Houston has fined EarthLink for falling behind deadlines.[7] On May 13, 2008, EarthLink announced it was ending its free WiFi program in Philadelphia.[12]

Reed Slatkin

In 2002, when co-founder Reed Slatkin's Ponzi scheme made headlines,[13] EarthLink released a statement:[14]

"The legal proceedings concerning ex-Board member Reed Slatkin do not involve or impact EarthLink or EarthLink funds. The proceedings involve Mr. Slatkin and his personal clients."

Helio

Main article: Helio (wireless carrier)

On January 26, 2005, EarthLink announced that it had formed an agreement with Korean cellphone service provider SK Telecom to jointly own and operate a new MVNO in the U.S. wireless marketplace. The name of this new company is Helio. The network was expected to commence operations sometime in spring 2006. Helio's business model revolves around providing advanced wireless devices not commonly seen for sale in the US market to technology-savvy consumers. The company's flagship device is the Helio Ocean. On June 27, 2008, they agreed to sell their stake in the company to Virgin Mobile.

Aluria Software
Type Wholly Owned Subsidiary of EarthLink, Inc
Industry Computer Security
Founded 1999
Headquarters Maitland, Florida
Products Internet Security Suite
Website http://www.aluriasoftware.com

Aluria Software, LLC

Aluria Software, LLC was a privately held company founded in 1999 by Jim Kruse, Jamie Southworth & Matthew Garrison and based in Lake Mary, Florida. On August 22, 2005 EarthLink, Inc. announced an agreement to acquire Aluria Software's assets; thus making Aluria Software a division of EarthLink.[15]

Aluria Software develops and markets security and protection products for consumers, small businesses, and enterprise customers.

New Edge Networks

EarthLink completed its acquisition of New Edge Networks April 13, 2006.[16] New Edge Networks is a CLEC that provides network solutions to businesses through direct and wholesale channels. New Edge differentiates itself from its competition with its private backbone and MPLS network product. New Edge also manages network connections for more than 350 multi-site retailers and has received several awards, most recently the Front & Sullivan “Customer Value Enhancement” Award and Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” for Remote Access and Mobility Services.[17]

The acquisition of New Edge strengthens EarthLink’s move into the business-to-business markets.[18] New Edge's core network assets have provided EarthLink Business Solutions with a larger coverage area.[19] EarthLink Business Solutions’ product offerings include: dial-up, ADSL, SDSL, fractional and full T1s and T3s.[20] EarthLink Business Solutions call center is located in New Edge’s Vancouver, Washington, campus.[21]

DNS and filtering controversy

In August 2006 EarthLink teamed up with Yahoo and Barefruit to redirect web browser users accessing nonexistent domains to a page containing sponsored search results, ads, and a Yahoo search form. The DNS protocol requires that a query for a nonexistent domain must return the "NXDOMAIN" error response. Instead of this response, EarthLink's DNS servers return several IP addresses for the HTTP servers that implement their redirection service. While such redirection might be helpful to users of some web browsers, it breaks the functionality of many other Internet applications, which assume that the DNS is implemented according to the standard specifications. EarthLink's redirection also prevents the user's web browser from detecting NXDOMAIN errors and handling them according to the user's preference.

Comments left in the official EarthLink blog announcing the feature [1] and news aggregators like Slashdot [2] have been overwhelmingly negative. In 2003, VeriSign implemented a similar feature called Site Finder for all .com and .net domains. VeriSign ultimately reversed the change after the ensuing controversy and under pressure from ICANN. While Site Finder affected all Internet users, EarthLink's redirection feature is only applicable to EarthLink ISP customers. In contrast with VeriSign's policy of not mentioning the effect of Site Finder on non-HTTP-based services, EarthLink says it is trying to minimize the impact on such uses of DNS, which is impossible, since a DNS query doesn't contain any information that can be used by the DNS server to determine whether the addresses obtained from the query will be used for HTTP or other traffic.

After about a month of complaints on the blog, EarthLink made available two DNS servers that it says are unaffected by the service and should properly return NXDOMAIN for all "dead" domain names. [3] These must be manually configured on machines of customers who wish to use them. The company says it will not provide technical support for these alternate servers.

During 2005 and 2006 EarthLink began blacklisting email from a large number of smaller hosting companies to combat spam.

CEO Changes

On November 21, 2006, EarthLink reported in a press release that its CEO, Garry Betty, had been diagnosed with a serious form of cancer which would have required him to take an undetermined leave of absence. The company's Board of Directors named Mike Lunsford, Vice-President of Voice and Access, as interim CEO. Betty died on January 2, 2007.[22][23] Scott Richard Wilson quickly replaced Garry Betty but on May 2007,announced that he would be taking a Vice president job at New York Life and on June 25, 2007, EarthLink named Rolla Huff its President and CEO. On January 29, 2008, EarthLink announced that Rolla Huff would replace Robert Kavner as Chairman of the Board.[24]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Form 10-Q for EarthLink Inc. biz.yahoo.com July 30, 2010.
  2. ^ "Contact Information." EarthLink. February 7, 1998. Retrieved on September 7, 2010.
  3. ^ Simons, David (December 20, 2001). "EarthLink: Winning Tightwad". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2001/12/20/1220simons.html. Retrieved 2009-06-05. 
  4. ^ Husted, Bill (July 26, 2005). "EarthLink to Cut 180 Customer Service Workers; Work to be Outsourced Overseas.". Atlanta Journal Constitution. pp. 1D. 
  5. ^ U.S. Institutional Database. November 20, 2006. EarthLink Incorporated
  6. ^ Leith, Scott (October 20, 2006). "Quarterly Loss Drives EarthLink Stock Down". Atlanta Journal Constitution. pp. 2G. 
  7. ^ a b Wu, Tim (2007-09-27). "Where's My Free Wi-Fi? Why municipal wireless networks have been such a flop.". Slate. http://www.slate.com/id/2174858/pagenum/2/. Retrieved 2007-09-27. 
  8. ^ "EarthLink: A Cash Flow Turnaround Story". Seeking Alpha. March 11, 2008. http://seekingalpha.com/article/67989-earthlink-a-cash-flow-turnaround-story. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
  9. ^ "EarthLink Completes Acquisition of STS Telecom". March 02, 2011. http://atlanta.citybizlist.com/3/2011/3/2/EarthLink-Completes-Acquisition-of-STS-Telecom.aspx. 
  10. ^ "EarthLink’s Citywide Wi-Fi Gamble is a Calculated Risk". Telecommunications Industry News. June 6, 2006. http://www.teleclick.ca/2006/06/earthlink%e2%80%99s-citywide-wi-fi-gamble-is-a-calculated-risk/. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
  11. ^ a b Charny, Ben (2007-09-12). "San Francisco formally ends citywide Wi-Fi effort". MarketWatch. http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/san-francisco-formally-ends-citywide/story.aspx?guid=%7BCCFE5024-4078-4969-B8B3-A977B076018D%7D. Retrieved 2007-09-27. 
  12. ^ Yao, Deborah (May 13, 2008). "Earthlink pulls plug on Wireless Philadelphia". WPVI-TV Philadelphia. http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=5923639. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
  13. ^ Tkacik, Maureen (March 27, 2002). "EarthLink Co-Founder Slatkin Admits to Fraud in Ponzi Scheme". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB101718484270953360.html. Retrieved 2009-04-17. 
  14. ^ EarthLink Acquires Assets Of Aluria Software
  15. ^ New Edge Networks (2006-04-13). "Company Milestones". New Edge Networks. http://www.newedgenetworks.com/about_us/milestones.xea. Retrieved 2007-12-28. 
  16. ^ New Edge Networks (2006-04-13). "New Edge Earns Frost & Sullivan's 2007 Customer Value Award". New Edge Networks. http://www.newedgenetworks.com/about_us/news/?id=1449. Retrieved 2007-12-28. 
  17. ^ Goldman, Alex (2005-12-14). "EarthLink Means Business". ISP-Planet. http://www.isp-planet.com/investor/2005/earthlink_new_edge.html. Retrieved 2007-12-28. 
  18. ^ Goldman, Alex (2006-05-01). "Announcing EarthLink Business Solutions". ISP-Planet. http://www.isp-planet.com/news/2006/earthlink_small_business.html. Retrieved 2007-12-28. 
  19. ^ "Business Internet Access". EarthLink Business Solutions. http://www.earthlink.biz/highspeed/. Retrieved 2007-12-28. 
  20. ^ "FAQ - Business Internet Access". EarthLink Business Solutions. http://www.earthlink.biz/support/faq-highspeed.jsp#elnk. Retrieved 2007-12-28. 
  21. ^ Keefe, Bob. "EarthLink: Illness Drives Leader Shuffle." Atlanta Journal-Constitution. November 22, 2006. Business Section 1C.
  22. ^ Roberts, Paul F (2007-01-03). "EarthLink CEO Betty dead at 49". InfoWorld. http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/03/HNearthlinkceo_1.html. Retrieved 2007-01-03. 
  23. ^ Gaffikin, Brigid (2008-01-28). "EarthLink names CEO Rolla Huff board chair". Tradingmarkets.com. http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1035376/?hcode=relatednews. Retrieved 2008-03-07. 

References

External links

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