United Internet

United Internet AG
legal form	Corporation
ISIN	DE0005089031
founding	1988
Seat	Montabaur , Germany
management	Ralph Dommermuth ( CEO ) ; Frank Krause; Kurt Dobitsch ( Chairman of the Supervisory Board );
Number of employees	9400 (2019)
sales	5.2 billion euros (2019)
Branch	Internet service providers, services, telecommunications
Website	www.united-internet.de
	As of December 31, 2019

The United Internet AG based in Montabaur is a listed ISP . The company is active with a total of 14 brands and numerous subsidiaries and holdings.

Montabaur site, aerial view (2016)

history

The history of the group goes back to 1 & 1 EDV-Marketing GmbH , which was founded in 1988 by Ralph Dommermuth and Wendelin Abresch as a service provider for marketing and advertising. In the 1990s, the company grew into a large group that, in addition to web hosting packages, also offered its own online service that users could use to dial into the Internet.

In 1998 1 & 1 signed a stake in the Karlsruhe Internet provider Schlund + Partner , which was increased to 100 percent in 2000. In the course of this, United Internet AG was founded , under whose roof the entire web hosting and access business was brought together in the subgroup 1 & 1. The webspace packages were sold under the name "1 & 1 PureTec". United Internet initially operated as a partnership limited by shares , but was later converted into a stock corporation. The company is the successor to 1 & 1 Beteiligungen GmbH & Co. KG .

The company has been traded on the stock exchange since March 1998, using ordinary shares with an arithmetical share in the share capital of one euro each. United Internet went public before the high phase of the New Economy , but the share reached a closing price of over 200 percent of the issue price on the first day of trading.

In the years 2000 to 2003, the subsidiary 1 & 1 entered various foreign markets, including Great Britain , France and the United States . In May 2005 United Internet took over the portal and e-mail business from Web.de , which will be merged with the in-house GMX service in 1 & 1 Mail & Media GmbH .

In December 2008 it was announced that the company would take over united-domains AG , based in Starnberg, for around 34 million euros.

In May 2009 United Internet announced the takeover of the DSL business from Freenet AG . The last approximately 700,000 DSL customers went to United Internet for a total of 123 million euros. As a result of the takeover, the connections of the former Freenet customers did not work at times; the connection was switched off for former Tiscali customers in this context.

The AdLink Group no longer belongs to United Internet since July 2009, it was sold to the French group Hi-Media .

On September 3, 2014, United Internet announced that the remaining 74.9% of the shares in the fixed-line and fiber-optic network operator Versatel GmbH or its parent company would be taken over from the previous main owner, the private equity company KKR , retroactively from July 1, 2014 .

The takeover of the Polish web host home.pl for around 135 million euros was announced on July 10, 2015 .

On December 15, 2016, United Internet announced that it wanted to take over Europe's largest competitor Strato for around EUR 600 million; the purchase was completed on April 1, 2017.

Products and brands

The company is divided into the Access and Applications divisions . All offers relating to access to the Internet and information are bundled under Access , for example cellular and DSL connections. This area is mainly fed by the brands 1 & 1, the discount brands from Drillisch Online and 1 & 1 Versatel. The group classifies all products that provide certain web-based applications, for example e-mail or web hosting tariffs, under Applications . In addition to 1 & 1, WEB.DE and GMX, United Internet operates here with the brands IONOS, Fasthosts, Arsys, InterNetX, united-domains and Sedo. United Internet AG currently unites 14 brands under one roof.

1 & 1 Drillisch

From the end of May 2015, United Internet held a stake of around 20% in Drillisch , one of the largest mobile service providers and MVNOs based in Maintal , Germany-wide, through United Internet Ventures AG .

In May 2017, Drillisch, which is listed independently on the stock exchange, took over the United Internet subsidiary 1 & 1 Telecommunication SE . for over 2 billion euros. In return, United Internet received new shares in Drillisch AG as part of a capital increase. The transaction was completed in September 2017 after receiving antitrust approval. On January 2018 the company changed its name from Drillisch Aktiengesellschaft to 1 & 1 Drillisch Aktiengesellschaft . United Internet is now the largest shareholder in 1 & 1 Drillisch with a stake of 75.1%.

1 & 1 Versatel

1 & 1 Versatel GmbH is a telecommunications provider with a broad product portfolio consisting of voice, internet and data services for private and business customers. The company, which is based in Berlin and has actual corporate headquarters in Düsseldorf, has emerged over the years from a merger of various city and regional network operators and operates exclusively on the German market. In the 2013 financial year, Versatel achieved total sales of EUR 547 million with its products. According to its own statements, Versatel maintains the second largest fiber optic network in Germany after Deutsche Telekom. After a previous long-term financial commitment (since 2008) by United Internet as an important anchor investor, the network technology from Versatel, which is available almost nationwide, is the decisive reason for the complete takeover, as United Internet itself or its subsidiary 1 & 1 has so far only maintained rudimentary network technology and this with third-party providers ( Telekom Deutschland , Vodafone , QSC , Telefónica ) have to buy quite expensively as an advance payment for their own products. The Versatel takeover on July 1, 2014 is therefore to be seen as a historic change in strategy in the history of United Internet. On July 1, 2016, it became known that Versatel would now operate under the name 1 & 1 Versatel. The change is intended to underline the membership in the 1 & 1 group.

GMX

GMX founded in 1998, has been part of United Internet since 2001. GMX became known as a provider of e-mail with one account for several e-mail addresses. GMX also marketed virtualized SMS, fax and answering machines ( unified messaging ) in the early days . Today the focus is on secure email and cloud storage. The GMX brand is operated within the group by the company 1 & 1 Mail & Media GmbH, to which the web.de brand also belongs.

Web.de

Web.de ( spelling WEB.DE ) is an internet portal that was founded in 1999. In 2005 it was, by its own account, the offer with the widest reach without its own access business and the second most visited German website behind t-online.de . Web.de started as an editorially managed directory - similar to the Open Directory Project - and has been transformed into a general news service to this day.

In addition, Web.de appears with the so-called Web.de SmartSearch as a search engine , which not only displays simple websites in the search results, but also images and other media. Web.de became known in the German-speaking area primarily for WEB.DE FreeMail , an offer for e-mail inboxes. It is available in both a free and a paid version.

mail.com

Founded in 1995, the US e-mail and messaging provider mail.com, based in Philadelphia, has been part of United Internet since September 2010. The takeover opens up further growth potential through differentiated brand appearances abroad and the simultaneous expansion of synergies through shared use of the GMX infrastructure.

The brand is aimed (despite the already existing international offer via GMX.com) in particular at users in the USA and Great Britain, but also in India, France and Spain and currently has around 6.5 million users, including 3.4 million alone in the USA.

United Internet Media

United Internet Media GmbH is an advertising marketer specializing in online marketing for United Internet's own online and mobile offers (e.g. WEB.DE, GMX and mail.com) and, with its digital reach, has around 31 million people in Germany alone one of the largest German online media marketers. Around 293 million Internet users across Europe and more than 810 million Internet users in 60 countries worldwide are within United Internet Media's advertising reach. In addition to the main German locations in Karlsruhe and Munich, the company also has other branches in Hamburg , Düsseldorf and Vienna .

Ionos

In November 2010 United Internet acquired a 30 percent stake in the Berlin IaaS provider ProfitBricks GmbH . In August 2017 ProfitBricks became a 100% subsidiary of United Internet. In October 2018, the hosting business and cloud computing of the two United Internet subsidiaries 1 & 1 Internet and ProfitBricks were bundled under the company 1 & 1 Ionos SE. Since September 2019 the brand identity has been under Ionos by 1 & 1 . Between the two websites Ionos and 1 & 1 Telecommunication there is a reciprocal link to your optionally complementary offer.

Strato

Strato ( own spelling STRATO ) has been part of United Internet AG since April 1, 2017. The company had previously been taken over by Deutsche Telekom for € 600 million . Strato was founded in 1997 and, with over 2 million customers, is also one of the world's largest hosting providers.

Arsys

In August 2013 United Internet announced the 100% takeover of the Spanish web host Arsys via 1 & 1 Internet AG. According to its own information, Arsys is the largest Spanish web host with 150,000 customers and EUR 40 million in annual sales. The brand is to be continued independently in Spain.

home.pl

In 2015, the Polish company home.pl was acquired, which is a market leader in the field of web hosting.

World4You

In August 2018, World4You was taken over, which is the market leader in the Austrian domain and web hosting market.

Fasthosts

The Fasthosts Internet Ltd was founded in November 1999 in the UK and is active in the fields of web hosting, domains, e-commerce and e-mail hosting. Fasthosts has been part of United Internet since May 2006. According to its own information, Fasthosts managed up to 10 million domains in 2012 and is one of the largest resellers in the country. The company has had a subsidiary in the United States since 2009 .

InterNetX

InterNetX, founded in Regensburg in 1999 , offers domains, servers and SSL certificates exclusively for commercial customers. The company's focus is primarily on resellers who want to offer their own hosting products but do not have the appropriate infrastructure.

United Internet has held an 80 percent stake through its subsidiary 1 & 1 since 2004; in return, InterNetX GmbH took over the business of Schlund Technologies GmbH, which was previously located in Karlsruhe at Schlund + Partner . The participation in InterNetX has increased to almost 100 percent over the years.

InterNetX acts as the central domain registrar for several other United Internet brands . The company is in direct competition with its sister company united-domains.

United domains

The united-domains AG While in Starnberg is one of United Internet , acting as one of the few brands of the group but largely independent. The Starnberg- based company has existed since August 2000 and was a subsidiary of Lycos Europe since 2003 before it was taken over by United Internet in early 2009. For some time now , the company has had a branch in Boston called United Domains, Inc.

Sedo

Sedo is a global marketplace for trading and marketing domains. Founded in 2000, it was completely taken over by United Internet in 2005. Since 2010 Sedo has been operating under the name of Sedo Holding AG , which has its headquarters in Cologne and branches in Great Britain and the USA.

With almost 16 million domains traded, Sedo is the market leader in the secondary market for domains. Sedo is also one of the world's leading providers in the domain parking sector . Sedo also offers services such as the valuation of domains.

Group structure and investments

All group companies are assigned to one of the three subgroups 1 & 1 Internet SE , 1 & 1 Drillisch AG or United Internet Ventures AG . As the name suggests, the latter represents all minority holdings of the group as a separate venture company (with the only exception of the wholly owned subsidiary Sedo). United Internet AG is essentially divided into the following individual or sub-companies:

Tele Columbus

In February 2016, United Internet acquired a total of 25.11% of the third-largest German cable network operator Tele Columbus through United Internet Ventures AG and with this stake has also become the largest single shareholder of Tele Columbus AG. There is already a close connection to the company through the mobile communications provider Drillisch , which was acquired in May 2017 and provides the mobile communications services for Tele Columbus.

ePages

Since February 2014, United Internet has held a share of around 25 percent in ePages , an online shop software company with headquarters in Hamburg , which is active in several countries through United Internet Ventures AG .

Rocket Internet

In August 2014, United Internet acquired a 10.7 percent stake in Rocket Internet , an Internet company based in Berlin , which has numerous venture capital investments in various Internet startups, for 435 million euros . As of June 2015, United Internet still held an 8.3 percent stake in Rocket Internet SE through United Internet Ventures AG. United Internet sold its stake in Rocket Internet in December 2019 and has not held a stake in the company since.

Awin

In 2017, the group subsidiary Affilinet was brought into Awin AG , a joint participation of Axel Springer SE (80%) and United Internet AG (20%). On October 1, 2018, affilinet GmbH merged into Awin AG. Awin is a privately held company and is the world's largest affiliate marketing company .

meaning

United Internet is one of the largest Internet providers in Europe alongside Deutsche Telekom . Due to the two brands WEB.DE and GMX, the group achieves an enormous reach, as both sites are among the 20 most frequently accessed offers in German-speaking countries. As a result, United Internet generates a significant proportion of its revenues from advertising.

The subsidiary IONOS, which is one of the five largest web hosting companies in the world and is also one of the ten largest providers for domain registration, is of particular importance. In addition, 1 & 1's market share for cellular and DSL connections in Germany is considerable.

The new subsidiary Versatel will be of particular importance in the future. As a telecommunications and fixed network operator available almost all over Germany, thanks to its own extensive fiber optic network as a backbone, it is also Germany's second largest fiber optic infrastructure company. The takeover of Versatel increases the number of DSL customers within the United Internet Group to a total of 4.12 million and thus strengthens its own market position as German number 2 or 3 (behind the market leader Deutsche Telekom with 12.3 million customers and the actual number 2 - Vodafone including Kabel Deutschland with 5.2 million customers) in this important business segment.

On December 18, 2014, a corresponding preliminary report in manager magazin online announced that United Internet was examining the acquisition of the QSC network in addition to the recent acquisition of Versatel and was already in intensive discussions with the company. A few hours later, the official, albeit very cautious, confirmation of the events was given by QSC AG via DGAP ad hoc announcement. As a result, numerous other media reported on the plans.

Data centers

United Internet has several data centers in Germany. One of the largest with over 25,000 servers is located in Karlsruhe . Another data center is located in a former aircraft bunker in Rheinmünster near Karlsruhe / Baden-Baden Airport . Two other smaller data centers are located in the urban area of Karlsruhe.

Due to the great market penetration of 1 & 1 and their hosting, a large part of the websites hosted in Germany are located there. The data from customers of the 1 & 1 subsidiaries in France, Great Britain, Poland and Spain are also hosted in the German data centers. In August 2006 United Internet announced that it would build a data center for over 40,000 servers in Lenexa (Kansas) in the USA , which was put into operation in mid-2007.

The commissioning of a new data center in the former fuel element factory Neue MOX in Hanau was planned for the end of 2009 . This location should offer space for more than 100,000 servers. In 2010, the move to the new data center was postponed, as the utilization of the existing data center should first be optimized.

In 2013 1 & 1 opened a data center in Niederlauterbach , Alsace , around 20 kilometers from Karlsruhe. The operating company is 1 & 1 Datacenter SAS, based in Strasbourg.

The subsidiary 1 & 1 Internet SE uses servers from Cloudflare for its 1 & 1 CDN product .

United Internet operates its own backbone with which the data centers are connected to various Internet nodes , for example DE-CIX , INXS , AMS-IX and LINX .

Ownership structure

proportion of	Shareholders
42.27%	Ralph Dommermuth GmbH & Co. KG holding company
3.02%	BlackRock , Inc.
3.00%	Allianz Global Investors Europe GmbH
2.99%	Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management Investment GmbH
2.99%	Oppenheimer Funds Inc.
0.29%	United Internet AG (own shares)
0.26%	Michael Scheeren
0.08%	Norbert Lang
0.02%	Morgan Stanley
0.01%	Robert Nikolaus Hoffmann
45.07%	Free float

(As of August 1, 2014)

Web links

Commons : United Internet - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Official website of United Internet AG

Individual evidence

↑ Our story. In: 1 & 1 - The company. Accessed December 10, 2019 (German).

↑ ^a ^b Annual Report 2018. (pdf) In: united-internet.de. Retrieved August 1, 2019 .

↑ ^a ^b History of 1 & 1 Internet AG. Retrieved August 14, 2012 .

↑ Holger Bleich: Web host Schlund + Partner goes into 1 & 1. In: heise online. November 2, 2006, accessed November 1, 2007 .

↑ ^a ^b ^c Investor Relations - Data & Facts. (No longer available online.) United Internet, archived from the original ; Retrieved August 14, 2012 .

↑ Hanno Beck: From the Westerwald to the web world. (No longer available online.) In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. May 5, 2005, formerly in the original ; Retrieved November 1, 2007 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2

^ Jens Ihlenfeld: Portal Web.de before takeover by United Internet. In: Golem. March 16, 2005, accessed August 14, 2012 .

↑ United Internet AG takes over domain division from Lycos Europe. December 13, 2008, accessed August 14, 2012 .

↑ AdLink Media sold to Hi-Media. In: Internetworld. July 6, 2009, accessed August 14, 2012 .

↑ Reports detail - United Internet AG. In: www.united-internet.de. Retrieved July 10, 2015 .

↑ United Internet takes over the hosting specialist Strato. (PDF) United Internet Press Office, December 15, 2016, accessed December 15, 2016 .

↑ United Internet's business areas. Retrieved December 13, 2014 .

↑ United Internet trademarks. Retrieved December 13, 2014 .

↑ United Internet becomes the largest shareholder in Drillisch AG. United Internet, accessed June 14, 2015 .

↑ heise online: Shareholders agree: United Internet can take over Drillisch. July 25, 2017. Retrieved July 25, 2017 .

↑ Sven Hansen: Drillisch becomes "1 & 1 Drillisch". In: telecom-handel.de. January 12, 2018, accessed August 3, 2020 .

↑ History | 1 & 1 Versatel. Retrieved March 10, 2018 .

↑ Profile | 1 & 1 Versatel. Retrieved March 10, 2018 .

↑ fs.versatel.de

↑ United Internet AG: The Access business segment - United Internet AG. Retrieved March 10, 2018 .

↑ teltarif.de

↑ Features of FreeMail. (No longer available online.) WEB.DE, archived from the original ; Retrieved August 14, 2012 .

↑ GMX acquires mail.com. mail.com, accessed December 13, 2014 .

↑ Axel-Postinett: GMX is buying in the USA. In: Handelsblatt. September 20, 2010, accessed December 26, 2018 .

↑ THE INTERNATIONAL EMAIL PROVIDER. United Internet, accessed December 13, 2014 .

↑ The fastest growing international communication and service portal! United Internet, accessed December 13, 2014 .

↑ Company description and locations. United Internet Media, accessed August 27, 2015 .

↑ United Internet takes a 30% stake in Andreas Gauger's and Achim Weiß’s new cloud hosting company: ProfitBricks. Retrieved April 18, 2017 .

↑ ProfitBricks ( Memento from October 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed October 21, 2018)

↑ heise.de of October 26, 2018

↑ https://www.ionos.de/unternehmen. In: ionos.de. Retrieved August 19, 2020 .

↑ United Internet takes over the hosting specialist Strato. In: united-internet.de . Retrieved January 5, 2018.

↑ United Internet AG: Latest news for investors - United Internet AG. Retrieved March 10, 2018 .

↑ https://www.united-internet.de/marken/homepl.html | access = 2018-11-04

↑ https://www.united-internet.de/marken/world4you.html | access = 2018-11-04

↑ fasthosts.co.uk: History of Fasthosts

↑ Fasthosts at a glance. (No longer available online.) United Internet, archived from the original ; Retrieved August 14, 2012 .

↑ Company profile. InterNetX, accessed on August 14, 2012 .

^ Annual financial statements 2010. (PDF; 1.2 MB) United Internet, March 16, 2011, accessed on November 27, 2017 .

↑ Jens Ihlenfeld: United Internet buys United Domains. In: Golem. December 13, 2008, accessed July 14, 2012 .

↑ Sedo Holding AG: The most important dates and events. (No longer available online.) Sedo Holding, archived from the original on August 15, 2012 ; Retrieved August 14, 2012 .

↑ united-internet.de Consolidated Financial Statements 2014 of United Internet AG

↑ United Internet buys 25.1% stake in Tele Columbus AG. In: Tele Columbus press release. February 11, 2016, accessed May 20, 2017 .

↑ United Internet may increase its share in Tele Columbus. In: ITespresso. March 9, 2016. Retrieved May 20, 2017 .

↑ United Internet has a 25 percent stake in ePages. United Internet, accessed April 10, 2014 .

↑ United Internet acquires shares from Rocket Internet. Handelsblatt, accessed on June 14, 2015 .

↑ Shareholder structure. Rocket Internet, accessed June 14, 2015 .

↑ United Internet and Axel Springer merge affilinet and Awin and create leading affiliate network in Europe , United Internet press release, August 2, 2017, accessed on May 14, 2018

↑ s3.amazonaws.com (accessed October 20, 2018)

↑ Top Sites Germany. Alexa Statistics, accessed January 4, 2019 .

↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: The World's Top Domain Registrars )

↑ Second largest fiber optic network: United Internet buys Versatel. Retrieved September 8, 2014 .

↑ United Internet is considering purchasing the network from QSC. Retrieved December 12, 2014 .

↑ QSC AG: Ad hoc announcement according to § 15 WpHG. Retrieved December 12, 2014 .

↑ Is QSC doing the deal with United Internet? (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 18, 2014 ; Retrieved December 12, 2014 .

↑ Data centers at a glance. 1 & 1, accessed on August 14, 2012 .

↑ Stefan Tomik: Provider: The Lords of Terabytes. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. March 1, 2010, accessed February 26, 2015 .

↑ Christian Wolf: Visiting 1 & 1: Web hosting in the server bunker. In: Online costs. June 14, 2011, accessed June 24, 2011 .

↑ 1 & 1 Internet AG: Hanauer Atomfabrik becomes green data center. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 28, 2012 ; Retrieved August 14, 2012 .

↑ 1 & 1 moves data center to Hanauer Bunker. Retrieved October 19, 2011 .

↑ Audience Selection. Accessed March 10, 2018 .

↑ Global Asset Management. Accessed March 10, 2018 .

50.435555555556 7.8122222222222Coordinates: 50 ° 26 ′ 8 ″ N , 7 ° 48 ′ 44 ″ E

[1] Our story. In: 1 & 1 - The company. Accessed December 10, 2019 (German).

[gb2018-2] Annual Report 2018. (pdf) In: united-internet.de. Retrieved August 1, 2019 .

[geschichte-3] History of 1 & 1 Internet AG. Retrieved August 14, 2012 .

[4] Holger Bleich: Web host Schlund + Partner goes into 1 & 1. In: heise online. November 2, 2006, accessed November 1, 2007 .

[investor-5] Investor Relations - Data & Facts. (No longer available online.) United Internet, archived from the original ; Retrieved August 14, 2012 .