EarthLink
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| EarthLink Inc. | |
|---|---|
| Type | Public (NASDAQ: ELNK) |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
| Key people | Sky Dayton, Kevin M. O'Donnell, Kevin M Dotts, Rolla Huff |
| Industry | Internet & Communications |
| Products | ISP |
| Revenue | ▲$1.216 billion (2007) USD |
| Employees | 998 (2008) |
EarthLink (NASDAQ: ELNK), is an Internet service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It claims 5.4 million members (2004 estimate).
Contents |
[edit] Business
EarthLink provides a variety of Internet connection types, including dial-up, DSL, satellite, and cable. Both dial-up and high speed Internet access are available nationwide. In addition to Internet access, EarthLink offers Web hosting and e-commerce services for individuals and small and medium-sized businesses.
EarthLink also offers different types of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services. One type provides both DSL and home voice service which makes VOIP service practical for DSL users. The support section of the EarthLink Web site has detailed instructions for configuring Windows and Mac OS to access the company's network, either with the EarthLink software or with those operating systems' standard networking features. Linux is not listed on EarthLink's support pages.
In addition to selling the company's various Internet connections online and by phone, EarthLink operates retail kiosks in some Fry's Electronics stores, manned by two to five representatives directly employed by EarthLink, rather than Fry's. For signing up in-store, EarthLink offers customers special promotions not available elsewhere (including cash back and extended discounts). Services sold at the kiosks include PeoplePC dial-up, PeoplePC Accelerated dial-up, EarthLink Accelerated dial-up, and EarthLink High Speed (including Cable, DSL, and Satellite). EarthLink provides the large majority of its users with free anti-virus software (Windows 2000 & XP only).
[edit] History
EarthLink was founded in 1994 by Sky Dayton and Kevin M. O'Donnell.[1] Dayton supposedly spent an entire week trying to configure his own computer for Internet access. He then soon realized the market for user-friendly ISPs. In search of startup capital, he approached the father of his childhood friend, David O'Donnell. Kevin M. O'Donnell was widely recognized throughout the industry, having founded Government Technology Services, (at the time) the largest reseller of computer equipment to the federal government. Recognizing the potential to expand upon Sky's original model of 6,000 subscribers in the Greater Los Angeles area, O'Donnell and other "angel investors" put up the initial startup capital and structured management. Reed Slatkin was a co-founder[2][3][4][5] of Earthlink.
From a modest beginning of ten modems, the company has grown to include more than 2,000 POP numbers in the US—and more than 40,000 internationally.
On February 4, 2000, the company (then based in Pasadena, California) merged with Atlanta-founded MindSpring, making it the second-largest ISP in the U.S.— after AOL.
On June 10, 2002, EarthLink acquired PeoplePC, a value-priced dial-up service that has more dial-up access numbers than any other ISP (including AOL). PeoplePC's direct competitors are NetZero and Netscape.
In July 2005, EarthLink announced that it was closing the last of its in-house American call centers, though the company still has American call centers via out-source telecom companies. In the late 1990s, when all of EarthLink's technical support was provided through in-house call centers, the company promoted the knowledgeability of its agents specializing in its service, yet it continues to do so with its current staff. EarthLink cut 2,600 jobs in 2003 and 2004.[6] Although EarthLink has reduced its expenses from $283,357,000 in 2003 to $227,285,000 in 2005, their earnings are shrinking. In 2003, EarthLink reported an income of $1,401,930,000, but by 2005, it was only $1,290,072,000.[7]
In October 2006, EarthLink reported its first quarterly loss in more than 2-1/2 years, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Revenue from dial-up customers dropped 16.8 percent as the company lost 320,001 of those customers from the previous year. The company predicted another loss in the fourth quarter of 2006 of $15-25 million due to investment in Helio.[8]
In response to budgetary concerns, EarthLink began a major restructuring in late Summer 2007 which involved laying off half its employees and withdrawing from several product lines.[9]
[edit] Free WiFi initiative
EarthLink worked with Philadelphia, San Francisco, Anaheim and nine other cities to deploy public Wi-Fi networks.[when?] It teamed up with Google in an effort to bring such a network to San Francisco. EarthLink saw citywide Wi-Fi as a way to compensate for the ongoing loss of dialup customers, and hoped to use its strong brand identity and established customer base to gain an edge in the market. [10]
EarthLink's municipal wireless efforts began to dissolve in late August 2007 when the financially ailing company said it was no longer willing to solely fund construction of city-wide wireless networks in San Francisco and 11 other cities.[11] The plan to build free wireless in San Francisco was formally scrapped by the city on 12 September 2007.[11] A project in Chicago has stopped cold, and Houston has fined Earthlink for falling behind deadlines.[9] On 13 May 2008, Earthlink announced it was ending its free WiFi program in Philadelphia.[12]
[edit] EarthLink early Controversy
In the early years after Sky Dayton founded EarthLink, it was charged by some critics of the Church of Scientology that because Dayton was a Scientologist, EarthLink was therefore connected to the church. This claim was researched and discussed in June, 1996 by Robert Wright in Slate (article also reprinted in Time Magazine that year):
- The good news for Sky Dayton, 24-year-old chairman of one of the fastest-growing companies in the world, is that the Internet is a place where a smart young man can become a tycoon overnight. The bad news for Sky Dayton is that the Internet is a place where anyone with a home computer, a modem, and some animus can make your life miserable...The bad news for the rest of us is the larger moral of Dayton's story: The famously "egalitarian" properties of the Net have a creepy and oppressive flip side.
- …Is EarthLink Church of Scientology affiliated?...It's true that [Daytons]'s a Scientologist (like John Travolta, Chick Corea, etc.). "I practice my personal right to choose my own beliefs," he says...But there's no evidence that, as the shadow page intimates, EarthLink is an arm of the church. The company's CEO is Southern Baptist, and its chief financial officer is Roman Catholic. Scientology "is a large religion," says Dayton. "If I were to ask you if, because you were a Jew, your company was owned by the state of Israel, everybody would laugh at me."[13]
[edit] Reed Slatkin
In 2002, when co-founder[2][3][4][5] Reed Slatkin's Ponzi scheme made headlines, EarthLink released a statement:
"The legal proceedings concerning ex-Board member Reed Slatkin do not involve or impact EarthLink or EarthLink funds. The proceedings involve Mr. Slatkin and his personal clients." [1]
On November 8, 2006, the Associated Press reported that Slatkin would pay back 3.5 million dollars of illegally obtained funds:
"Three groups affiliated with the Church of Scientology have agreed to return $3.5 million they received from a pyramid scheme operated by Reed Slatkin, the disgraced co-founder of EarthLink Inc." [2]
[edit] Helio
On January 26, 2005, EarthLink announced that it had formed an agreement with Korean cellphone service provider SK Telecom to jointly own and operate a new MVNO in the U.S. wireless marketplace. The name of this new company is Helio. The network was expected to commence operations sometime in spring 2006. Helio's business model revolves around providing advanced wireless devices not commonly seen for sale in the US market to technology-savvy consumers. The company's flagship device is the Helio Ocean.
| Aluria Software | |
|---|---|
| Type | Wholly Owned Subsidiary of EarthLink, Inc |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Maitland, Florida |
| Industry | Computer Security |
| Products | Internet Security Suite |
| Website | http://www.aluriasoftware.com |
[edit] Aluria Software, LLC
Aluria Software, LLC was a privately held company founded in 1999 and based in Orlando, Florida. On August 22, 2005 EarthLink, Inc. announced an agreement to acquire Aluria Software's assets; thus making Aluria Software a division of EarthLink.[14]
Aluria Software develops and markets security and protection products for consumers, small businesses, and enterprise customers.
[edit] New Edge Networks
EarthLink completed its acquisition of New Edge Networks April 13, 2006.[15] New Edge Networks is a CLEC that provides network solutions to businesses through direct and wholesale channels. New Edge differentiates itself from its competition with its private backbone and MPLS network product. New Edge also manages network connections for more than 350 multi-site retailers and has received several awards, most recently the Front & Sullivan “Customer Value Enhancement” Award and Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” for Remote Access and Mobility Services.[16]
The acquisition of New Edge strengthens EarthLink’s move into the business-to-business markets.[17] New Edge's core network assets have provided EarthLink Business Solutions with a larger coverage area.[18] EarthLink Business Solutions’ product offerings include: dial-up, ADSL, SDSL, fractional and full T1s and T3s.[19] EarthLink Business Solutions call center is located in New Edge’s Vancouver, Washington, campus.[20]
[edit] Controversy
In August 2006 EarthLink teamed up with Yahoo and Barefruit to redirect web browser users accessing nonexistent domains to a page containing sponsored search results, ads, and a Yahoo search form. The DNS protocol requires that a query for a nonexistent domain must return the "NXDOMAIN" error response. Instead of this response, EarthLink's DNS servers return several IP addresses for the HTTP servers that implement their redirection service. While such redirection might be helpful to users of some web browsers, it breaks the functionality of many other Internet applications, which assume that the DNS is implemented according to the standard specifications. EarthLink's redirection also prevents the user's web browser from detecting NXDOMAIN errors and handling them according to the user's preference.
Comments left in the official EarthLink blog announcing the feature [3] and news aggregators like Slashdot [4] have been overwhelmingly negative. In 2003, VeriSign implemented a similar feature called Site Finder for all .com and .net domains. VeriSign ultimately reversed the change after the ensuing controversy and under pressure from ICANN. While Site Finder affected all Internet users, EarthLink's redirection feature is only applicable to EarthLink ISP customers. In contrast with VeriSign's policy of not mentioning the effect of Site Finder on non-HTTP-based services, EarthLink says it is trying to minimize the impact on such uses of DNS, which is impossible since a DNS query doesn't contain any information that can be used by the DNS server to determine whether the addresses obtained from the query will be used for HTTP or other traffic.
After about a month of complaints on the blog, EarthLink made available two DNS servers that it says are unaffected by the service and should properly return NXDOMAIN for all 'dead' domain names. [5] These must be manually configured on machines of customers who wish to use them. The company says it will not provide technical support for these alternate servers.
During 2005 and 2006 EarthLink began blacklisting email from a large number of smaller hosting companies to combat spam. In January 2007, Dreamhost, the world's 19th-ranked web hosting company, had been blocked for a number of weeks and said that its technicians were unable to get past EarthLink's lowest tier of technical support [6].
[edit] CEO Changes
On November 21, 2006, EarthLink reported in a press release that its CEO, Garry Betty, had been diagnosed with a serious form of cancer which would have required him to take an undetermined leave of absence. The company's Board of Directors named Mike Lunsford, Vice-President of Voice and Access, as interim CEO. Betty lost his battle with cancer and passed away on January 2, 2007.[21][22] On June 25, 2007, EarthLink named Rolla Huff its President and CEO. On January 29, 2008, EarthLink announced that Rolla Huff would replace Robert Kavner as Chairman of the Board.[23]
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.secinfo.com/dRqWm.81ad.htm#3nl4
- ^ a b Staff. "Earthlink co-founder charged with fraud, money laundering", CNN, Time Warner, March 27, 2002.
- ^ a b Staff. "Business digest", St. Petersburg Times, May 1, 2002, pp. EARTHLINK CO-FOUNDER ADMITS FRAUD.
- ^ a b Tkacik, Maureen. "EarthLink Co-Founder Slatkin Admits to Fraud in Ponzi Scheme", Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2002.
- ^ a b Staff; The Associated Press. "Earthlink Chief Signs Agreement", The Washington Post, June 2, 2001.
- ^ Husted, Bill. "EarthLink to Cut 180 Customer Service Workers; Work to be Outsourced Overseas." Atlanta Journal Constitution. 26 Jul. 2005. Business Section. 1D
- ^ U.S. Institutional Database. 20 Nov. 2006. EarthLink Incorporated.
- ^ Leith, Scott. "Quarterly Loss Drives EarthLink Stock Down." Atlanta Journal Constitution. 20 Oct. 2006. Business Section 2G.
- ^ a b Wu, Tim (2007-09-27). Where's My Free Wi-Fi? Why municipal wireless networks have been such a flop.. Slate. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
- ^ EarthLink’s Citywide Wi-Fi Gamble is a Calculated Risk » Telecommunications Industry News
- ^ a b Charny, Ben (2007-09-12). San Francisco formally ends citywide Wi-Fi effort. MarketWatch. Retrieved on 2007-09-27.
- ^ Earthlink leaving Wireless Philadelphia project
- ^ Wright, Robert (1996-06-30). Shadow Boxing. Slate Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-03-08.
- ^ Earthlink Acquires Assets Of Aluria Software
- ^ New Edge Networks (April 13, 2006). Company Milestones (HTML). New Edge Networks. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
- ^ New Edge Networks (April 13, 2006). New Edge Earns Frost & Sullivan's 2007 Customer Value Award (HTML). New Edge Networks. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
- ^ [Alex] (December 14, 2005). EarthLink Means Business (HTML). ISP-Planet. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
- ^ [Alex] (May 1, 2006). Announcing EarthLink Business Solutions (HTML). ISP-Planet. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
- ^ Business Internet Access (HTML). EarthLink Business Solutions. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
- ^ FAQ - Business Internet Access (HTML). EarthLink Business Solutions. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
- ^ Keefe, Bob. "EarthLink: Illness Drives Leader Shuffle." Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 22 Nov. 2006. Business Section 1C.
- ^ Roberts, Paul F. "EarthLink CEO Betty dead at 49", InfoWorld, 2007-01-03. Retrieved on 2007-01-03.
- ^ Gaffikin, Brigid. "Earthlink names CEO Rolla Huff board chair", Tradingmarkets.com, 2008-01-28. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
[edit] References
- Armstrong, Larry (1997-12-15). The Mac of Internet providers. Business Week. Retrieved on 2008-03-08.
- Michael, Michael (1998-03-19). EarthLink & Scientology. Metroactive News & Issues. Metro Newspapers. Retrieved on 2008-03-08.
- Rafter, Michelle V. (1998-05-28). EarthLink Connects. The Industry Standard. Retrieved on 2008-03-08.
[edit] External links
- Official homepage of EarthLink
- History of EarthLink
- EarthLink Dial-Up
- EarthLink High Speed
- EarthLink Web Hosting
- EarthLink Software & Tools
- EarthLink Member Center
- EarthLink SIPshare
- Earthlink Business Solutions
- New Edge Networks
- Business data
- EarthLink, Inc. at Google Finance
- EarthLink, Inc. at Yahoo Finance
- EarthLink, Inc. at Hoover's
- EarthLink, Inc. at Reuters
- EarthLink, Inc. SEC filings at EDGAR Online
- EarthLink, Inc. SEC filings at the Securities and Exchange Commission
