UKDomains - Domain Registration and Web Site Hosting

The total consideration of £2,885,000 for Phase8 comprises 17 million Names.co Internet Plc shares plus £250,000 in cash and an additional 600,000 share option package for our staff. Jason Smith (Operations Director), Kevin Savage (Creative Director) and myself will be joining the Board of Names.co Internet Plc effective from Friday, 1st December 2000. Phase8 has achieved an enormous amount since it was formed just over 12 months ago, primarily in the International domain name registration arena. The current momentum, together with many other services soon to be launched, is set to continue with this exciting announcement.

Phase8 has a highly complementary business, which incorporates the trading names of CheapNames.co.uk, Bulk123.com and most importantly, Names123.com. One of the services provided by Names123.com is a domain name auction site, which was the first to be launched in Europe over 12 months ago. This was of particular interest to Names.co Internet Plc after the recent acquisitions in the US of similar sites, such as Afternic.com, which was purchased by Register.com.

The acquisition of Phase8 will more than double Names.co's market share of International domain registrations. Phase8 extends Names.co's target range of businesses to different sectors of the domain registration market. By bringing together the web hosting portfolios, the new Group can anticipate a long-term revenue stream. Together, the merged Group will enjoy greater economies of scale with a far higher profile in the market.

As a new Group we have many challenges before us, but I am confident our new Chairman, David Heynes, will be reporting exciting progress over the coming months and years. One particular ambition is to expand and broaden our hosting services to better serve the rapidly expanding Internet services sector.

This strategy is key to the continuing success of the newly expanded Group as it provides the basic services on which the Internet is built upon. Furthermore, Forrester Research forecasts the demand for web hosting services is likely to spiral from $3bn in 1998 to $23bn in 2002.

John Sewell
Managing Director, Phase8