According to the announcement Tuesday, NTT Plala will migrate more than 95 percent of small and home business users to Verio's shared hosting platform. Billed by Verio as "a mid-priced solution designed specifically for these growing businesses," the company is also moving select NTT Plala customers to the company's new Business Server-Standard, Virtual Private Server line.

Both companies are at least partially-owned by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Communications. On March 1, Plala was renamed NTT Plala after its major stockholder and NTT Communications is also the parent company of Verio since its more than $5 billion acquisition in 2000.

"With the support of NTT Plala Inc, Verio has gained a significant footprint in the Japanese market. Verio is now able to further build its small and home business user base, a rapidly growing global segment," Verio president and CEO Kiyoshi Maeda said. "NTT Plala Inc can now meet customers' needs for high and low-end pricing options based on functionality requirements and, with Verio's award-winning quality standards, also surpass the high service level expectations in the Japanese market."

This is the latest in a series of moves by Verio to increasingly target the global, small business market. In June, when Verio appointed two new marketing executives, sales and marketing VP Steve Renda said that the company would be working on becoming "the provider that small businesses everywhere turn to for guidance implementing smart and scalable web-based business solutions."