October 8, 2003 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Sprint (sprint.com) is close to selling a portion of its Web hosting business to Houston, Texas-based VeriCenter, Inc. (vericenter.com), according to a report published Monday by the Business Journal of Kansas City.
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Sources told the Journal that VeriCenter plans to take over Sprint?s Internet data center (IDC) facilities in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas and Denver, according to the deal currently being negotiated.
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The deal is reported to be valued at $12.5 million, according to the Journal.
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John Polivka, spokesperson for Sprint, said an announcement regarding what Sprint intends to do with its Web hosting division will be made in the next two weeks, the Journal reported.
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Sprint announced in June that it was exiting the Web hosting market.
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Sprint’s Web hosting business, operating out of eight data center facilities across the United States, has consistently incurred heavy losses, losing 10 cents a share on revenue of about $60 million over a 12-month period.
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VeriCenter currently provides managed services and hosting for data and applications from its single IDC facility in Houston.
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Analysts quoted in the Journal report speculated that VeriCenter is interested in expanding its customer base beyond the local market.
