OVERLAND PARK, Kan., — Aplus.net, a leading web hosting company and internet solutions provider, boasts strong revenue growth over the last three years allowing it to be ranked 4,060 on Inc. Magazine’s 5000 list for 2009. The list examines privately held companies throughout the United States and ranks them based on percentage revenue growth from 2005-2008.
"Aplus.net is honored to join the ranks of many other great companies on this list," said Amanda Rusich, Aplus.net’s director of marketing. "It’s our dedication to our customers that has allowed this continuous growth over the last decade of offering web hosting solutions to meet small business needs."
On July 31, 2009, Hostopia.com Inc., a unit of Deluxe Corporation, closed an acquisition of the shared hosting portion of Abacus America Inc., doing business as Aplus.net. "This acquisition is a perfect example of what can come to fruition for a strong private brand like Aplus.net as they continue to grow even in difficult economic times," said Colin Campbell, CEO of Hostopia. "We’re honored Inc. is recognizing the success Aplus.net has had in helping small businesses get and keep customers."
Aplus.net will not be eligible for the next Inc. 5000 list since a publicly traded company now owns it. However, this recognition displays Aplus.net’s commitment to continue building a successful hosting brand in a highly competitive market while providing a full suite of online services to its small business customers. About Aplus.net One of the industry’s longest-running web hosting and internet services providers, Aplus.net specializes in helping small businesses build an online customer base with a comprehensive range of services that includes shared hosting, dedicated hosting, web design, online marketing, eCommerce, domain name registration and more. Aplus.net has received multiple awards for excellence, including the prestigious CNET Editors’ Choice Award, and has been featured in top U.S. business publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, BlackEnterprise, and PCMagazine. For more information about Aplus.net, please visit www.aplus.net.
About Deluxe Corporation Deluxe Corporation
(NYSE: DLX) is a growth engine for small businesses and financial institutions. Through its industry-leading businesses and brands, the Company helps small businesses and financial institutions attract and retain customers. The Company employs a multi-channel strategy to provide a suite of lifecycle driven solutions to its customers. In addition to its personalized printed products, the Company offers a growing suite of business services, including logo design, payroll, web design and hosting, business networking and other web-based services to help small business grow. In the financial services industry, Deluxe sells check programs and fraud prevention, customer loyalty and retention programs to help banks build lasting relationships and grow core deposits. The Company also sells personalized checks, accessories, stored value gift cards and other services directly to consumers.
For more information about Deluxe, visit http://www.deluxe.com. SOURCE Deluxe Corporation Amanda Rusich, Director of Marketing of Aplus.net, +1-913-495-4517, amandar@aplus.net
wo Acquisitions to Expand Small Business Web Services Customer Base
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Deluxe Corporation (NYSE: DLX) today announced two moves by its Hostopia unit to help expand Deluxe’s Web services customer base - a definitive agreement to purchase certain of the shared web services customer assets of Aplus.net and the completed purchase of the search engine marketing (SEM) firm MerchEngines.
Upon closing, the Aplus.net transaction will bring more than 80,000 small business subscribers of shared Web hosting, hosted e-commerce stores, managed e-mail services, domains and a variety of Web site management applications to the Deluxe customer base.
“Within weeks of closing, Aplus.net’s shared hosting customers will see a service upgrade offering numerous new and enhanced web services including: mobile messaging, logo design, social networking for business, ecommerce, website design, email marketing, and other promotional materials that help small businesses get and keep customers,” said Colin Campbell, president of Hostopia.
“This is a very beneficial and strategic transaction for both sides and, most importantly, we feel that Aplus.net’s shared hosting customers will be in excellent hands with Deluxe,” said Tyler Newton, Chairman of Aplus.net and partner at Catalyst Investors, majority stakeholder of Aplus.net. “This sale allows us to focus on growing and expanding our mid-to-large enterprise-managed hosting service offering in our core managed and dedicated server business.”
MerchEngines’ SEM solutions help small businesses acquire new customers by generating visitors to their websites. This acquisition adds new and more robust SEM capabilities to the Hostopia portfolio of services.
“Many small business owners want to grow online, they just don’t have the expertise to do it themselves,” said Campbell. “By adding MerchEngines’ SEM expertise, Hostopia now offers our partners and customers a complete, easy-to-use and cost-effective Web solution–one that levels the playing field for small business owners by providing SEM services that historically have been only available to larger companies or enterprise advertisers.”
The Aplus.net transaction is expected to close by the end of July while the MerchEngines transaction closed on July 8, 2009. The Company will pay approximately $30 million for these companies in the third quarter and expects they will contribute approximately $7 million of revenue and nearly flat earnings per share in the last half of 2009 after recording transaction and customer migration expenses.
The Company also reported today that it now expects diluted earnings per share for the quarter ended June 30, 2009 to range from $0.52 to $0.54, up from the previous outlook of $0.41 to $0.49. Adjusted earnings per share for the same quarter is expected to range from $0.54 to $0.56, up from the previous outlook of $0.43 to $0.51 and revenue for the quarter will be approximately $332 million. A favorable product mix and lower spending, plus a lower effective tax rate each contributed to the favorable results.
The Company previously announced that it will report its second quarter 2009 results on Thursday, July 23, 2009 prior to market open. On the same day, the Company will hold an open-access conference call at 11:00 a.m. EDT (10:00 CDT).
About Deluxe
Deluxe Corporation, through our industry-leading businesses and brands, helps small businesses and financial institutions better operate, protect and grow their businesses. The Company uses direct marketing, a North American sales force, financial institution referrals, independent distributors and the internet to provide a wide range of customized products and services: personalized printed items (checks, forms, business cards, stationery, greeting cards and labels), promotional products and merchandising materials, web hosting and other web services, fraud prevention and marketing services, financial institution customer loyalty and retention programs and business networking services. The Company also sells personalized checks, accessories, stored value gift cards and other services directly to consumers. For more information about Deluxe, visit http://www.deluxe.com.
About Aplus.net and Catalyst Investors
One of the industry’s longest-running Web hosting and Internet services providers, Aplus.net specializes in helping small businesses build an online customer base with a comprehensive range of services that includes web design, shared hosting, online marketing, eCommerce, domain name registration, managed services and more. Following the sale, Aplus.net will continue to focus on growing and expanding its mid-to-large enterprise-managed hosting services. The growth private equity firm Catalyst Investors is a majority stakeholder in Aplus.net. Catalyst employs a rigorous research focus to identify investment opportunities in companies that exhibit strong revenue and margin growth. For more information about Aplus.net, visit www.aplus.net. For more information about Catalyst Investors, visit www.catalystinvestors.com.
About MerchEngines
MerchEngines.com is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that provides ad agencies, traditional media companies, online publishers, and local aggregators a hosted and fully managed search marketing solution. MerchEngines integrates traffic generation solutions with conversion technologies, such as call tracking/call recording and lead capture/lead management solutions, into one easy-to-use private label-able dashboard. There are three ways to get involved with MerchEngines: become a reseller partner and offer customized, private label, online advertising solutions to your advertisers; license MerchEngines’ technology and let MerchEngines manage your client’s online ad campaigns for you; or license MerchEngines’ technology and manage your advertising campaigns using an integrated end-to-end traffic generation and post click marketing platform. For additional information, visit www.merchengines.com.