Host Europe Group is a European website hosting, email and domain name registrar company headquartered Hayes, West London. Founded as GX Networks in 1997, the company was renamed Pipex Communications plc following its takeover of Pipex 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 in 2017, and as of 2019 its name was in the process of being phased out.
Brands
Through a series of acquisitions and mergers GX Networks is known through various brands. Since 2009, the company has consolidated its trading under the brand names: 123-reg, Heart Internet, Host Europe, Webfusion, RedCoruna, Mesh Digital and Domainbox.
History
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 and San Jose in the US, London's LINX and Stockholm in Europe. With various changes of ownership, the company's name has changed several times, taking on the Pipex name following its takeover in 2003. Following restructuring in 2009, the company trades under the Webfusion name in the UK, as part of HEG and is based in Hayes in West London. As of 2015, HEG claimed to be Europe's largest privately-owned hosting company. in Strasbourg, France
Timeline
April 1997 - Internet Technology Group announces the acquisition of Xara Networks Limited in a deal worth £2.65 million.
September 1997 - Xara Networks, a subsidiary of Internet Technology Group, relaunched as GX Networks.
September 2000 - Concentric Network merged with Nextlink to form XO Communications.
2001 - The UK arm of XO Europe was sold off to form Transigent Limited.
September 2002 - Zipcom plc acquires Transigent 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 and Compulink Information eXchange Limited, which were previously part of the Telenor Business Holdings UK Limited Group.
September 2003 - GX Networks buy
October 2003 - GX Networks plc became Pipex Communications plc to maintain the PIPEX brand after a buy out for £55m.
2006 - Pipex Communications acquires Supanetwork, better known as SupaNames, for £2.2 million.
March 2008 - Due to Pipex Broadband being sold to Tiscali, the company known as Pipex Communications UK Ltd reverts to GX Networks Ltd.
October 2009 - Further internal re-structuring by Oakley Capital 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
