Wow, I really did not expect this to happen: 1&1 announced last week that they will close their famous and well respected German business brand Schlund6Partner (
www.schlund.de)All existing customers of Schlund&Partner have been offered 1&1 packages, advertisement for the brand stopped, by Januar 1, 2007 the brand will disappear.
With more than 70.000 business sites hosted Schlund&Partner is one of the largest business hosts in Germany and serves mainly small to medium sized business with high priced shared and dedicated hosting packages. Schlund&Partner was founded 10 years in 1996 by Rainer Schlund, Andreas Gauger and other partners. Back then Schlund&Partner was the first professional shared hosting provider offering web space in Germany, others would just resell US space.
Prior to 1998 1&1 had not been active in the hosting business but then bought the majority of shares of Schlund&Partner and developed together with Schlund&Partner its own consumer orientated shared hosting products. In 1999 1&1 bought the remainig shares of the business. Rainer Schlund left the company to pursue other businesses, Andreas Gauger stayed and became on of the masterminds behind the success of 1&1. Schlund&Partner was the origin and "mother" of the success of 1&1 and set the foundation for 1&1 becoming the largest host in the world.
Apart all emotional feelings about Schlund&Partner's roll in the German hosting industry for me the decision of 1&1 is also hard to understand from a business standpoint. At least from the outside Schlund&Partner seemed like a very succesful and respected brand selling services at a very high margin. Schlund&Partner had its own reseller structure with more than 6000 resellers all over Germany, and for many people in the industry was one of the first options for high quality business hosting. So to say, Schlund&Partner could be considered the German Rackspace.com. In my opinion 1&1 destroys a lot of value by closing such a strong brand. But I am sure they know what they do...
