Company type | Private company |
---|---|
Industry | Internet service provider |
Founded | March 1994 (as EarthLink Network, Inc.) |
Founder | Sky Dayton |
Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
Key people | Glenn Goad (CEO) Mike Toplisek (President) |
Products | Internet access, premium email, web hosting and privacy and data security products and services |
Number of employees | ~100 |
Website | www.earthlink.net |
EarthLink is an American Internet service provider. [1]
Earthlink went public on NASDAQ in January 1997. Much of the company's growth was via acquisition; by 2000, The New York Times described Earthlink as the "second largest Internet service provider after America Online." [2] [3] [4]
EarthLink was formed in 1994, and offers services to residential consumers and businesses. EarthLink claims to have five million users. [5] [6]
EarthLink business internet sells business telecom services, IT and virtualization, cloud computing, IT security, digital marketing, colocation, hosted applications and support services. The company owns and operates a U.S. network including 29,421 route miles of fiber, 90 metro fiber rings, and eight data centers.[ citation needed ]
EarthLink offers residential consumers services that include wireless, fiber, and satellite internet, streaming content bundles, web hosting and e-commerce. Its products include spam filters, anti-virus protection, and cloud storage.
Private equity firm Trive Capital acquired EarthLink in January 2019. [7]
EarthLink was founded in July 1994 by Sky Dayton when he was 23 years old. [8] Dayton was convinced of the need for a simple, user-friendly dial-up Internet service provider (ISP) after spending an entire week trying to configure his own computer for Internet access. [9] Dayton set up his own network, going to a CompUSA store, purchasing 14-kilobyte modems and connecting them all together in Atwater Village, a location he picked because it was the widest possible area to which a local call could be made. The company later moved to Pasadena in 1996. [10] [11]
By 1995, EarthLink offered dial-up service in 98 cities, and was one of the first U.S. ISPs to offer unlimited Internet access for a flat rate. [12] In 1996, they began to offer Internet services for businesses, including ISDN and Frame Relay Internet access [13] and web hosting. [14]
In 1997, Earthlink began to provide 56K dial-up access, doubling the speed of its dial-up service.[ citation needed ] EarthLink also teamed up with Charter Communications to offer high-speed cable Internet access. [15] In 1998, they entered partnerships with Sprint, Apple, CompUSA, and other companies that helped it reach 1 million members by the end of the year. [12]
In 1999, EarthLink launched its TotalCommerce service for small business Web hosting and also became the first ISP to offer nationwide high-speed Internet access via DSL. [12]
On February 4, 2000, the company, then based in Pasadena, California, merged with Atlanta-founded MindSpring, making it the second-largest ISP in the U.S., after AOL. [16] Later that year, the company launched EarthLink Biz DSL service. [17] EarthLink also acquired OneMain.com, a large, rural ISP, [18] and Rural Connections in 2001. [19]
In 2001, EarthLink partnered with DirecPC to offer a two-way satellite Internet service. [20] The company also introduced a fixed-IP DSL service for the SOHO business market. [21]
On June 10, 2002, EarthLink acquired PeoplePC, a low-priced dial-up ISP. [22]
EarthLink launched a VoIP phone service for broadband users called Unlimited Voice in April 2003. [23] The company also released several free tools for its members to block spam, viruses, and spyware. [24]
New ventures during the mid 2000s included:
In July 2005, EarthLink closed its in-house call centers to reduce costs. [36]
Other acquisitions in the early 2010s included ITC Deltacom, [37] One Communications, [38] STS Telecom, [39] LogicalSolutions.net, [40] part of Synergy Global Solutions in 2011, [41] and Business Vitals, a provider of IT security and professional services. [42] EarthLink also acquired xDefenders, a managed IT security company. [43]
In May 2011, the company created a new EarthLink Carrier division for wholesale customers with fiber-based transport, voice and data service, and switched services. [44]
In July 2013, EarthLink acquired CenterBeam, Inc., a provider of remote managed IT services—with an IT Support Center providing help desk, desktop technical support and application support services. [45]
In August 2023, it was announced EarthLink had acquired the Athens, Texas-headquartered fiber and fixed wireless business internet provider, One Ring Networks for an undisclosed amount. [46]
In July 2013, EarthLink completed its previously announced plans to open four new data centers in San Jose, Chicago, Dallas and Miami on its next-generation cloud platform. This brought its total to eight.[ citation needed ]
In March 2017, EarthLink was acquired by Windstream Holdings, Inc., in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $1.1 billion, including debt. [47]
In early January 2019, Trive Capital acquired EarthLink for $330 million in cash from Windstream Holdings Inc. In 2021, Earthlink published a statement in which the company confirmed that customer's passwords can be read by its staff. Shortly later, the company deleted this statement without any clarification. [48]
Earthlink's TotalAccess software bundled various tools, including a dialer, but had initial [49] negative reception both from users [50] and from hardware vendors such as Dell. [51] The 2nd iteration, TotalAccess 2004, added Earthlink Accelerator; a reviewer wrote: "EarthLink says lets dial-up users access Web pages up to 5 times faster." [52]
Other rankings and awards include:
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