October 18, 2005 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Web hosting provider Interland (interland.com) said on Tuesday that it had reduced the size of its staff, including the executive management team, and implemented a new fiscal year. The company says the changes are designed to improve overall financial results, decrease costs and add transparency.
Interland cut its staff by 38 percent, leaving the company with 280 employees. The staff reductions include the elimination of 139 positions from last month’s sale of its dedicated hosting division to Peer 1 Network (peer1.net).
The management team will consist of four members instead of seven. They include newly appointed president and chief executive officer Jeffrey M. Stibel, chief financial officer Gonzalo Troncoso, general counsel Jonathan Wilson and chief operations officer Richard Pitrolo.
In order to improve transparency, the company said it would change its fiscal year from August 31 to December 31. A quarterly report marking the old fiscal year will be issued on November 30, with another to follow on December 31 in accordance with the new fiscal year.
“Since joining Interland in early August, it has been my goal to turn around the company, improve its financial position and increase shareholder value,” says Jeffrey M. Stibel, CEO of Interland. “We took a hard look at the business and determined that today’s strategic changes were necessary and prudent for the overall health of the company. The decision to re-size our employee base was extremely difficult, however it was needed to streamline operations and increase operating efficiencies.”
After years of expansion through acquisition, Interland appears to be narrowing its focus. The company sold its shared hosting arm Hostcentric to Caird Corporation in May and its dedicated hosting division to Peer 1 Network in September, a deal that included 8,300 dedicated servers. In recent statements Interland said it would focus on the small and medium-sized business shared hosting market.
