The Planet Web Hosting Provider, to Manage Atitude Digital Media Hosting (Try Push Email, iCal, AddressBook for iPhone)

Houston, Texas - (The Hosting News) - August 18, 2008 - Privately held dedicated web hosting company, The Planet, has been selected by Brazil’s Atitude Digital Media, to manage its mission-critical IT infrastructure.

Helder Conde, Chief Technology Officer of Atitude Digital Media noted. ”In our business, our Webcasts are live, with several hundred people online for each event. Nothing can go wrong with the level of clients we serve. Our reputation is earned every time we conduct a Webcast, so uptime, stability and security are critical to us.”

Based in Sao Paulo, the 20-year-old company provides webcasting services to some of the world’s largest companies, including Pfizer, Schering-Plough, AstraZeneca, Novartis and Avon, as well as a number of medical societies.

In the past four years, the company has conducted more than 700 Webcasts with thousands of hours of live content to thousands of people in more than a dozen countries. A customer of The Planet since 2005, Atitude previously used dedicated hosting services for managing the company’s complex infrastructure.

Mr. Conde noted, ”We’ve grown rapidly, and we were looking for a company that provides all the services and technical expertise of Planet Northstar. Their Anticipation Advantage methodology helped determine exactly what we needed to create a top-notch infrastructure that could scale with our growth, and at a budget that was workable for us. We expanded our footprint to include additional servers, load balancers, firewalls, SAN storage, managed backup and database management. At Atitude, our core values include being responsive, trustworthy and committed to our customers, and I’m impressed our dedicated account team shares these values.”

Steve Kahan, Vice President of marketing and product management with The Planet added, ”Our development of the Anticipation Advantage enables customers to thoroughly plan their IT infrastructure beyond their needs just today. The methodology also provides key process indicators about when they need to begin scaling, which eliminates the worry and frustration many organizations experience in the face of rapid growth. Equally as important, the account team of highly skilled and seasoned experts is always available to customers so they have the confidence that a knowledgeable partner who knows their business is always available to help.”

In its 20-year history, Atitude has kept a keen eye on emerging market trends. The company was originally known for creating high-quality, computer-generated slides and transparencies for corporate presentations, as well as multimedia productions. Today, it is Brazil’s leading provider of Webcasting services, hosting on average more than one each day from three studios in its Sao Paulo offices.

Mr. Conde continued, ”In the last four years, the Internet has emerged as the best platform for communications, and our client base has moved rapidly for both internal and external audiences. Our clients require extensive training both for sales representatives and physicians, and they’ve found Atitude as the perfect solution to meet these needs.”

The company manages the entire event for clients. They work directly with presenters to host the event, sending notification and reminder e-mails to participants, generating reports on results, providing on-demand access afterwards, as well as maintaining extensive databases for each company. According to Conde, the presentations continue to add value for the companies since each one is typically viewed by at least four times the number of live Webcast participants.

Mr. Conde observed, ”In years past, these companies sponsored semi-annual meetings for their sales forces, but today as new studies emerge or competitive products are announced, it’s critical that they have new data immediately, so they rely on our services to meet that demand. At the same time, if one of these companies hosts physicians at an event anywhere in the world, they can Webcast with us from any venue, and we can support the requirement since our bandwidth connections are incredibly robust. With our capabilities, we make their lives much easier.”

The costs for hosting in the U.S. are five to six times lower than those in his native country. While bandwidth costs are slowly declining, ADSL is more common and far less efficient. In addition, because taxes on hardware are approximately 70 percent, hosting provides far better economic sense for his growing business.

Mr. Conde concluded, ”Making the decision to host overseas was difficult. As our international business grew, I knew it was the right direction for our company. We’ve seen other companies emerge in Brazil, and they appear to do a good job, until the participants begin to load. It’s there they fail. Our speed and reliability set us apart, which makes our offering highly competitive.”

Ultimately, The Planet’s goal is to provide:

• High levels of network capacity and speed to deliver peak performance
• Instant scalability to handle even the largest spikes in network traffic
• Parallel, redundant, multi-tiered network routing and switching architecture to assure reliability and stability
• Multiple layer network security that prevents Delayed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks from harming businesses
• Knowledgeable experts with a passion for excellence and a commitment to operate the best networks in the business

The Planet hosts over 22,000 small and medium-size businesses and 7.7 million Web sites worldwide. The Planet Alpha division provides the widest array of self-managed dedicated servers and advanced services backed by 24×7x365 support. The Planet Northstar Managed Hosting division combines a proactive methodology and seasoned IT experts to deliver a fully managed hosting solution. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and an enterprise-class network, The Planet turns IT into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to grow their businesses.

For more about The Planet, please visit: www.theplanet.com.

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Norcross, Virginia - (The Hosting News) - August 18, 2008 - Financial institution web hosting and design technology solutions firm, Goldleaf Financial Solutions, Inc., has reported financial results for the three and six months ending June 30, 2008.

Lynn Boggs, CEO of Goldleaf noted, ”We have had exceptional results in our payments processing segment, specifically in our teller capture and remote deposit automation products. As our product mix continues to shift to payments, data management, and hardware, we now generate more than two-thirds of our revenues from these rapidly growing business channels. While we cautiously watch the economy, our ongoing focus on these growth areas have allowed us to remain competitive, and we expect to leverage these elements for continued growth as we exit 2008 and into 2009.”
Revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2008 totaled $20.5 million, representing a 39.0% increase over the second quarter of 2007. Operating income totaled $1.0 million for the second quarter of 2008 compared to $0.3 million for the second quarter of 2007. Net income available to common stockholders totaled $0.3 million, or $0.02 per share, in the second quarter of 2008, versus net income available to common stockholders of $0.1 million, or $0.01 per share, in the second quarter of 2007.

Revenue for the first six months of 2008 totaled $39.7 million, compared to $27.8 million for the same period of 2007. Operating income totaled $1.0 million for the first six months of 2008 compared to an operating loss of $225,000 for the first six months of 2007. Net loss available to common stockholders totaled $(191,000), or $(0.01) per share, for the first six months of 2008, versus a net loss available to common stockholders of $(276,000), or $(0.02) per share, for the first six months of 2007.

EBITDAS is a non-GAAP financial measurement calculated as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and non-cash stock based compensation expense. EBITDAS totaled $3.3 million and $5.7 million, for the second quarter and first six months of 2008, respectively, as compared to $1.6 million and $2.1 million in the second quarter and first six months of 2007, respectively.

If the Company included the adjustments related to the CBS, Datatrade, and the Alogent acquisitions, which could not be recognized in the post acquisition financial statements, adjusted EBITDAS for the three and six months ended June 30, 2008 would have been $3.5 million and $6.9 million, respectively. (See Reconciliations of net income (loss) to EBITDAS and Adjusted EBITDAS.)

Goldleaf’s accomplishments in the first half of 2008 include:

• Relocated our corporate headquarters to Norcross, Georgia;
• Substantially completed the integration of Alogent, including the consolidation of Alogent’s Alpharetta offices into our Norcross facility; and
• Participated in three May investor conferences: JMP Securities Research Conference, FBR Growth Conference and DA Davidson and Co. Financial Services Conference.

On August 7, 2008, the company appointed Dan Owens as its chief financial officer. Most recently, Mr. Owens was Goldleaf’s chief accounting officer, with primary responsibilities over accounting, financial reporting and analysis. Mr. Owens replaces Scott Meyerhoff, who has served as acting CFO since November 2007. Mr. Meyerhoff will remain with the company’s executive management team as EVP of finance and strategy.

Mr. Boggs remarked, ”Dan’s strong financial management experience, financial industry insight and leadership qualities have played a key role in our success. Scott has been a tremendous asset to Goldleaf, and will continue to make an impact on our future strategic initiatives and overall business direction.”

The following is forward-looking and the actual results may differ materially. The Company’s outlook includes the effect of all acquisitions completed to date. Further, this outlook does not give effect to any additional potential mergers or acquisitions that may be consummated.

The Company anticipates achieving adjusted revenues for the full year 2008 of $87.0 million and adjusted EBITDAS for the full year 2008 of $15.0 million.

Goldleaf has a replay of its live conference call broadcast, available online under the Investor Relations tab and at www.earnings.com, for 30 days using the same links.

Goldleaf Financial Solutions, Inc. (GFSI) offers a product suite that provides core data processing, item processing and check imaging, ACH origination and processing, remote check capture and deposit processing, accounts receivable financing solutions, a teller automation system, turn-key leasing solutions, financial institution website design and hosting and retail inventory management services. Goldleaf believes its suite of products and services allows financial institutions and small to medium-sized business customers to compete more effectively.

To learn more about Goldleaf Financial Solutions, please visit: www.goldleaf.com.

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All Mobile Me subscribers have been given an additional 60 day extension. In an email sent out tonight, Apple explains the following: We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make. To recognize our users’ patience, we are giving every MobileMe subscriber as of today a free 60 day [...]

All Mobile Me subscribers have been given an additional 60 day extension. In an email sent out tonight, Apple explains the following:

We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make. To recognize our users’ patience, we are giving every MobileMe subscriber as of today a free 60 day extension. This is in addition to the one month extension most subscribers have already received. We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe’s launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around. Read this article for more details.

The MobileMe Team

Additional information from Apple’s website:

Why is Apple granting a 60-day subscription extension?

The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was rockier than we had hoped. While we are making a lot of improvements, the MobileMe service is still not up to our standards. We are extending subscriptions 60-days free of charge to express appreciation for our members’ patience as we continue to improve the service.

Aside from a leaked email in its entirety from Steve Jobs himself, Apple has already issued two Mobile Me service extensions.

To get caught up on the amazing experience Mobile Me provided many users, read this and this. And we can’t forget about the Mobile Me Status Blog which seemed to be deserted by David G. But not before giving us three updates here, here and here.

In addition, Walt Mossberg’s review called the service “far too flawed to recommend.”

I’ve previously written in detail my thoughts about Apple considering some help from Google, who is very experienced in cloud computing and web based applications. Although it seems that Apple is content with sorting through bugs and developing solutions of their own.

The 60 day extension will surely be welcomed by many, however a stable service is more important. At this point, I cant help but keep wondering, should Apple have launched Mobile Me as a beta service?

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