Host Europe Group (formerly Pipex Communications plc and GX Networks) was an American-owned, European-located

website hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web ho ...

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

and

domain name registrar A domain name registrar is a company, person, or office that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) Domain name registry, registry or a country code top-l ...

company headquartered

Hayes Hayes may refer to: * Hayes (surname), including a list of people with the name ** Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the United States * Hayes (given name) Businesses * Hayes Brake, an American designer and manufacturer of disc brakes * Hay ...

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: Central London, N ...

. Founded as GX Networks in 1997, the company was renamed Pipex Communications plc following its takeover of

Pipex Pipex ( ) was the United Kingdom's first commercial Internet service provider (ISP). It was formed in 1990 and helped to develop the ISP market in the UK. In 1992 it began operating a 64k transatlantic leased line and built a connection to the U ...

in 2003. It reverted to the GX Networks name following its sale of Pipex in 2008 before being renamed Host Europe Group in 2009. It was acquired by American hosting company

GoDaddy GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet Domain name registry, domain registry, Domain name registrar, domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. GoDaddy is the world's fif ...

in 2017, and its name was in the process of being phased out.

Brands

Through a series of acquisitions and (de)mergers ''GX Networks'' (and subsequently Webfusion) is known through various brands. Since 2009, the company has consolidated its trading under the brand names:

123-reg 123 Reg is an American domain registrar and web hosting company, founded in Britain in 2000 and now under the ultimate ownership of GoDaddy. The company claims to be the UK's largest accredited domain registrar and provides Internet services to ...

(The UK's largest domain name registrar, with more than 3 million names registered and 1.3 million websites hosted), Heart Internet (UK hosting), Tsohost (UK hosting), Host Europe (German hosting), Webfusion (Spanish hosting), RedCoruna (Spanish hosting), Mesh Digital and Domainbox (international domain names).

History

Host Europe was founded by

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

-based entrepreneur Uwe Braun. It began by offering internet services to corporations and began trading under the GX name in 1997. It believed that it had developed the first transatlantic IP backbone running native ATM. Webfusion originally started out with major Network Access Points in

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

and San Jose in the US,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

LINX Linx or LINX may refer to: * Linx Cargo Care Group, Australian logistics company * Linx (railway company), a now defunct Norwegian-Swedish railway company * Linx (software house), a Brazilian business management software company * LINX (IPC), ...

and

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

in Europe. With various changes of ownership, the company's name has changed several times, taking on the

name following its takeover in 2003. Following restructuring in 2009, the company trades under the Webfusion name in the UK, as part of HEG (formerly Host Europe Group) and is based in

. As of 2015, HEG claimed to be Europe's largest privately owned hosting company.

Timeline

* April 1997 – Internet Technology Group (ITG) announces the acquisition of

Xara Networks Xara is an international software company founded in 1981, with an HQ in Berlin and development office in Hemel Hempstead, UK. It has developed software for a variety of computer platforms, in chronological order: the Acorn Atom, BBC Micro, Z ...

Limited in a deal worth £2.65 million. * September 1997 – Xara Networks, a subsidiary of Internet Technology Group (ITG), relaunched as GX Networks. *January 2000 – GX Networks became part of

Concentric Network XO Communications, LLC, previously Nextlink Communications, Concentric Network Corporation and Allegiance Telecom, Inc., was an American telecommunications company. It was purchased and replaced by Verizon Communications. Services XO provided ...

. * September 2000 –

merged with Nextlink to form

XO Communications XO Communications, LLC, previously Nextlink Communications, Concentric Network Corporation and Allegiance Telecom, Inc., was an American telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the ...

. * 2001 – The UK arm of

XO Europe XO Communications, LLC, previously Nextlink Communications, Concentric Network Corporation and Allegiance Telecom, Inc., was an American telecommunications company. It was purchased and replaced by Verizon Communications. Services XO provided ...

was sold off to form Transigent Limited. * September 2002 – Zipcom plc acquires Transigent Limited (formerly XO Limited), the parent company of GX Networks in a deal worth approximately £10m. * October 2002 – Zipcom plc acquired the entire share capital of Transigent Limited the parent company of GX Networks. * March 2003 – Zipcom plc changed its name to GX Networks plc. * July 2003 – GX Networks acquires two more telecoms businesses XTML Limited ("XTML") and Compulink Information eXchange Limited ("CIX"), which were previously part of the Telenor Business Holdings UK Limited Group ("

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwi ...

"). * September 2003 – GX Networks bu
Firstnet Ltd
(owners of Liberty Broadband aka

Tele2 Tele2 AB is a provider of mobile and fixed connectivity, telephony, data network services, TV, streaming and global Internet of things services, amongst others, to consumers and enterprises. It is headquartered in Kista Science City, Stockholm, ...

UK) * October 2003 – GX Networks plc became Pipex Communications plc to maintain the PIPEX brand after a buy out for £55m. *April 2004 – Pipex Communications Plc acquires Host Europe Plc, an AIM listed hosting solutions provider to the UK and Germany, for £31 million * May 2005 – Pipex Communications acquires Donhost *2006 – Pipex Communications acquires Supanetwork, better known as SupaNames, for £2.2 million. * March 2008 – Due to Pipex Broadband being sold to Tiscali (now

Talk Talk Talk Talk were an English band formed in 1981 by Mark Hollis (vocals, guitar, piano), Lee Harris (drums), Paul Webb (bass), and Simon Brenner (keyboards). Initially a synth-pop group, Talk Talk's first two albums, '' The Party's Over'' (198 ...

), the company known as Pipex Communications UK Ltd reverts to GX Networks Ltd. * October 2009 – Further internal re-structuring by Oakley Capital (Owner of GX Networks) after selling Vialtus Solutions and further consolidate the brands of GX Networks by renaming the company Host Europe Group, and the UK business after the hosting branch of the firm Webfusion Limited * March 2010 – Host Europe Group acquires Virtualization firm Vanager * September 2010 – Host Europe Group acquired by

Montagu Private Equity Montagu is a mid-market private equity firm. The primary investment focus of Montagu is on management buyouts of performing businesses with enterprise values typically ranging from €200 million to €1 billion. History The firm was founded in 19 ...

* March 2011 – Host Europe Group acquires Dynamic-net.ch AG * August 2011 – Host Europe Group acquires Heart Internet Ltd * January 2012 – Host Europe Group acquires Spanish web host RedCoruna * May 2012 – Dynamic-net rebrands to Host Europe Suisse * May 2012 – Host Europe Group acquires Mesh Digital Ltd * July 2013 – Host Europe Group is acquired by

Cinven Cinven Limited is a global private equity firm founded in 1977, with offices in nine international locations in Guernsey, London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Luxembourg, Madrid, and Hong Kong that acquires Europe and United States–bas ...

. * Oct 2013 – Host Europe Group acquires Telefónica Online Services * Oct 2013 – Host Europe Group acquires domainFACTORY * Aug 2014 – Host Europe Group acquires Sign-Up.to * Nov 2014 – Host Europe Group becomes HEG * Dec 2014 – HEG acquires intergenia AG (with subsidiaries Plusserver, Server4you and Serverloft) * Oct 2015 – HEG acquires Paragon Internet Group * Dec 2016 –

acquires HEG for €1.69 billion. The full list of HEG brands in 2017 can be found here. * Apr 2024 –

Divests Heart Internet

References

External links

*
HEG
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gx Networks GoDaddy Networking companies

Host Europe Group Host Europe Group (formerly Pipex Communications plc and GX Networks) was an American-owned, European-located website hosting, email and domain name registrar company headquartered Hayes, West London. Founded as GX Networks in 1997, the compan ...