April 4, 2007 (TopHosts News Brief)-- Chicago-based Hostway announced today that it has acquired Affinity Internet. The acquisition creates one of the largest Web hosting entities in North America competing in scope with the likes of 1 & 1 Internet,...

April 4, 2007 (TopHosts News Brief)— Chicago-based Hostway announced today that it has acquired Affinity Internet.

The acquisition creates one of the largest Web hosting entities in North America competing in scope with the likes of 1 & 1 Internet, Go Daddy and Yahoo!. “This is a great deal for Hostway. According to Tier1 Research estimates, the deal puts Hostway squarely in the top 5 of our mass market hosting leaderboard,” said Tier1 Research Web Hosting analyst, Philbert Shih.

“Our first and main focus through this acquisition has been to ensure that customers of both companies do not experience any disruption in current services and in fact bolster it further,” said, Lucas Roh, CEO of Hostway, in a company press release.

Roh added: “By joining forces, we have an increased global scale, scope, human capital and financial strength to continue to deliver superior service levels and innovative products, which Hostway and Affinity have both built valuable brands and reputations on.”

Affinity Internet Inc., headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was established in 1996, two years prior to Hostway’s entry into the Web hosting market. Affinity owns and operates several industry leading web and application hosting brands, including ValueWeb, Gate.com, WinSave, BigStep, SiteHosting, and SkyNetWeb. Hostway has more than 400,000 Web hosting customers across North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

Jim Collins, CEO of Affinity Internet, reiterated, “our customers will be positively impacted by this acquisition - by gaining a new unparalleled power for their online presence.”