November 7, 2003 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- In some ways, this week was an average week in the Web hosting industry, with news of several acquisitions, as well as the launch of a number of new services. But in one particular way, it was a week of major significance in the hosting business, with some critical developments in the fate of Cable & Wireless's U.S. hosting division.

On Thursday, theWHIR reported that sources had indicated the US Web hosting division of Cable & Wireless was considering filing for bankruptcy on Friday evening. The development came as the company appeared to be faltering its efforts to land a buyer for the US hosting division. C&W had announced in June that it would exit the US hosting market, and planned to sell its operations.

On Friday, C&W said that it was on the verge of a sale, and that it expected the deal to be completed within two weeks. Sources did not deny bankruptcy rumors, but emphasized that a chapter 11 filing would be in the interest of eliminating excessive office space that is underutilized and detrimental to the company's bottom line.

In addition to the dramatic and high-profile news from C&W, there were several other, more concrete, announcements this week relating to acquisitions.

On Wednesday, software company Novell said it had entered into an agreement to acquire Linux developer SuSE Linux for $210 million in cash. In conjunction with the announcement, Novell said IBM had agreed to make an investment of $50 million in the company following the completion of the acquisition. The announcement comes following the company's acquisition of desktop Linux software maker Ximian. Combined, the two acquisitions could place Novell as a major competitor for leading Linux vendor Red Hat.

Also on Wednesday, Globix Corporation said that it had completed its acquisition of managed services provider Aptegrity. Globix says the acquisition, first announced in October, will fuel the company's transformation into a full service managed Internet applications and infrastructure provider. The specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.

And, in addition to all the acquisition-focused news, this week saw several new solutions released by companies very closely related to the Web hosting business.

On Monday, Ensim announced that it had launched Ensim Extend, a professional grade "mass-shared hosting" automation solution designed to help hosting providers manage the growth of their businesses. The Ensim Extend console works with WEBppliance Professional for Linux. Service providers layer Extend on top of WEBppliance Pro deployments, allowing them to increase the scale of operations. Ensim says the product was designed to help smaller hosts grow into large hosts, addressing some of the key ingredients missing from automation solutions today: scalability and extendability.

On Thursday, Zeus Technology announced that it had released a new software and migration services package designed to help Tru64, SGI IRIX and SCO UnixWare users migrate from iPlanet/SunONE Web server software to the Zeus Web Server. Sun Microsystems halted support for Tru64, SGI IRIX and SCO UnixWare last year, leaving users to choose between rewriting applications or changing hardware to a platform supported by Sun, said Zeus. The company's new package includes a bundle of Zeus Web Server licenses and dedicated migration support for an average cost of $80,000.

Also on Thursday, Apollo Hosting released TotalSolutions, a suite of marketing, e-commerce and site building tools to be included in the company's shared and virtual private server hosting packages. The company says TotalSolutions will also be available with dedicates hosting packages, which the company plans to launch in the near future. Existing Apollo Hosting customers will have access to TotalSolutions for no charge. The company says the tool includes Web hosting services, a Web site builder, a Miva Merchant e-commerce solution, a banner and newsletter creator, site submission services, site statistics, search engine position reports, Web calendars and online forums.

Certainly, the fate of Cable & Wireless's US Web hosting division is a point of interest for many Web hosting industry observers, more so now that the business's fate appears to be very close to decided. No doubt, the industry will be watching closely in the weeks to come for the final chapter of what seems to have become a very long and complex story.