AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VIA
NET.WORKS, Inc. (Nasdaq: VNWI; EASE), a leading provider of business
communications services for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe
and the US, today announced that:
* Dick Theunissen has been appointed President of Amen; and,
* Amen will become VIA's Linux based hosting platform and brand across
Europe.
In his new role, Mr. Theunissen, an officer of VIA NET.WORKS, Inc., will
work closely with the original founders of Amen to continue the success of the
existing Amen business and also coordinate VIA's roll-out in 2004 to 2005 of
the Amen platform and brand to both the existing VIA operations and new
geographic locations.
In commenting on these announcements, Rhett Williams, VIA's Chief
Executive Officer said, "We are delighted with the strong results in Amen's
existing operations in France, United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy. Both
financially and operationally, the company continues to meet our high
expectations. Amen's revenues continue to grow strongly since the acquisition
and the group continues to generate positive cash flows. We expect these
trends to continue."
Mr. Williams continued, "We expect that with Dick's past operating
experience in France, combined with his ongoing leadership role in VIA, he can
lead the Amen team to generating better than expected returns from our
investment. Between Amen and VIA, we now manage approximately 250,000
domains, which clearly puts us on the map of top European hosting companies.
Our objective is to become a recognised leader in the web hosting space in our
chosen markets and we believe we have the people and the technology in place
to make that happen over the coming year."
In commenting on the platform and brand roll-out, Mr. Theunissen stated,
"We plan to roll out the Amen hosting platform to Portugal, The Netherlands,
Germany and Switzerland before the end of the year, which will allow us to use
this fully-automated and scaleable end-to-end operating platform for all new
shared hosting customers in these territories. In addition, we will migrate
all of VIA's existing Linux shared hosting customers onto Amen's platform over
the next 12 months. We expect to achieve significant cost savings from this
migration and from the use of the Amen platform for new customers. Finally,
we also are seeking to enter new geographies with Amen services toward the end
of 2004 and the beginning of 2005."
About VIA NET.WORKS, Inc.
VIA NET.WORKS, Inc. (Nasdaq: VNWI; Euronext) is a leading provider of
business communication solutions to small and medium-sized businesses in
Europe and the United States. The Group serves over 200,000 businesses across
Europe with a comprehensive portfolio of business communications products
includes hosting, security, connectivity, networks and voice. In January 2004
VIA acquired the European web-hosting company, Amen -- www.amenworld.com.
Website: www.vianetworks.com
Note to Investors:
Certain statements in this press release including those regarding our
expectations for future performance of Amen, benefits of technical migration
of the Amen platform, and the introduction of the hosting platform in other
countries constitute forward looking statements. These statements involve a
number of risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations.
Actual results may differ materially. See the risks detailed in the Company's
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003 on file with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. By making these forward-looking statements, the Company
undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes
after the date of this release.
SOURCE VIA NET.WORKS, Inc.