SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15 (d) of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported) October 2, 2000
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WORLDPORT COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
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(Exact name of registrant as specified in charter)
Delaware 000-25015 84-1127336
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(State or other jurisdiction (Commission (IRS Employer
of incorporation) file number) Identification No.)
1825 Barrett Lakes Blvd., Suite 100, Kennesaw, Georgia 30144
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(Address of principal executive offices) (zip code)
Registrant's telephone number, including area code 770-792-8735
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N/A
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(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)
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ITEM 9. REGULATION FD DISCLOSURE
Worldport opened its SuperCentre in Dublin, Ireland on October 2, 2000 with a
celebration and meeting with a group of vendors, customers and financial
advisors and analysts. At the meeting, the company discussed their current
business plan. The following information was presented at the meeting.
STRATEGY
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Worldport's business plan calls for it to establish a pan-European network of
eBusiness solution centers and become a major provider of managed Internet
services in Europe. These eBusiness solution centers will provide a complete
portfolio of Internet solutions including strategic and tactical Internet
consulting and a full complement of web hosting products. Worldport will be
capable of managing the entire IT organization of a company.
Worldport's partnerships with key software and hardware providers will ensure
delivery of leading edge technology and solutions.
The European Internet solutions market was a $5 billion market (IDC and Intercai
Mondale) in 1999 and is expected to grow into a $35 billion industry by 2003
(IDC and Intercai Mondale). Today, approximately 25% of European companies
out-source their Internet operations as compared to 75% for the U.S. The
percentage of European companies that will out-source their Internet operations
is expected to increase as the Internet is increasingly used for commerce.
Worldport's Internet solutions products are separated into Internet services and
web hosting. Internet services include strategic and tactical consulting,
application design and development. The European Internet services market
according to IDC is a $4.5 billion business in 1999 and is expected to grow to
$24.5 billion by 2003. Web hosting includes the complete portfolio of hosting
products including co-location, managed and enterprise or complex web hosting.
The European web hosting market in 1999 was estimated at $500 million by
Intercai Mondale and is expected to grow to $10.5 billion by 2003.
OPERATING PLAN
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Worldport has developed a multi-phase approach to the market. The first phase is
fully funded and includes the construction of the SuperCentre, four Internet
solution centers in major European cities and the acquisition of Vis Able
International. Below are details relating to the first phase of the plan.
Worldport plans to establish Internet solution centers across Europe that will
provide a complete portfolio of Internet solutions including web hosting. The
company has secured Trans-Atlantic and pan-European bandwidth through Global
Crossings, providing connectivity to the U.S. and 35 major European cities. In
addition, the company has secured private peering agreements with global
backbone providers.
Worldport opened its SuperCentre in Dublin, Ireland on October 2, 2000
completing construction in slightly less than five months. The SuperCentre will
serve as our operational and business support center for our European web
hosting businesses. The SuperCentre is a 125,000 square foot facility with
55,000 square feet of hosting space. The SuperCentre will be the primary
location of Worldport's European support personnel. The company will provide
multi-level technical support, customer service, 24x7 operations, network
management, systems development and billing for all the Worldport European
operations from the SuperCentre. The SuperCentre is a purpose built facility
that has state of the art security, power, cabling, fire detection and
communication systems that will set the standard for Europe.
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Worldport has invested approximately $50 million in the construction of the
SuperCentre.
Worldport plans to build four additional Internet solution centers by the end of
2001. The company has established a standard blueprint for the construction of
Internet solution centers and can scale the blueprint according to market
opportunity. The Internet solution centers constructed after the SuperCentre
will be smaller in size and range between 30,000 and 60,000 square feet.
Worldport will acquire and grow Internet services (professional services) with
the construction of Internet solution centers. This will ensure that Worldport
can provide customers with the complete set of Internet services simplifying the
process of getting on the Internet and reducing time to market.
Worldport acquired Vis Able International AB on September 15, 2000 for $18
million in cash. Vis Able is a professional services company with offices in
Sweden, Belgium, U.K. and the U.S. In addition, Vis Able has a web hosting
operations in Sweden and the U.S. The company provides strategic and tactical
Internet consulting, application design, development and hosting. Vis Able will
be integrated into Worldport and be branded under the Worldport name.
The acquisition of Vis Able provides Worldport with access to the Scandinavian
market which is one of Europe's most developed Internet markets. Sweden has the
highest Internet penetration in Europe with 55% of Swedish households connected
to the Internet today.
Vis Able has an impressive list of customers such as ABB, Ericsson, Volvo,
Whirlpool, IBM and Telia. In addition, Vis Able has another 3,500 customers that
are hosting in their two data centers.
Worldport's completely integrated operating and business support systems allow
Worldport to proactively monitor and manage both internal and customer systems.
The systems allow Worldport to use technology and not people to scale the
business. The OSS/BSS system was built with the following software:
o Micromuse
o Visionael
o InfoVista
o Clarify
o Portal
All Worldport operations will utilize the OSS/BSS systems including companies
acquired. Worldport plans to invest $20 million in the development of these
systems by year end 2001.
TARGET CUSTOMERS
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The company has targeted the following customers,
o Small-Medium Enterprises (minimum 50 employees)
o Large and Multi-national Corporations
o Fixed and Mobile Operators
o Service Providers (ISP's and ASP's)
Separate product portfolios have been developed for each of the target market
segments. Worldport estimates that Europe has approximately 250,000 companies in
its target markets that could out-source
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some or all of their IT requirements over the next three years.
PRODUCTS
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Worldport is a full service provider of Internet solutions. Below is summary of
our product portfolio:
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Strategic and tactical Internet consulting
Application design
Application development
Application hosting
WEB HOSTING
Enterprise or Complex hosting
Managed hosting
Co-location
All web hosting customers will be able to secure the following value added
services from Worldport:
o Network security
o Firewall management
o Back-up
o Storage
o eBusiness
Worldport projects operating by the end of 2001 at an annual revenue run rate of
approximately $60 million from the Dublin SuperCentre, Vis Able operations and
four additional centers expected to be open before the end of 2001. Depending on
product mix, these operations have the capability of supporting up to $500
million in revenue at total capacity. Headcount is expected to reach
approximately 340 by year-end 2001. The company projects to achieve a positive
EBITDA run rate in early 2002.
The second phase of Worldport's strategy continues rapid expansion across Europe
including the construction of additional Internet solution centers and the
acquisition of Internet and eService companies. Worldport will need to secure
funding for this phase of the plan.
* * *
"Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995: Certain statements contained herein are forward looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties. These risks include, but are not limited to,
product demand and market acceptance, the impact of competitive products and
technologies, competitive pricing pressures, product development,
commercialization and technological delays or difficulties (including delays or
difficulties in developing, producing, testing and selling new products and
technologies), the effect of economic conditions and trade, legal, social, and
economic risks (such as import, licensing and trade restrictions) and other
risks more fully described in Worldport's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended June 30, 2000, under Item 2. Worldport
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undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to
these forward looking statements that may be made to reflect events or
circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of
unanticipated events.
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Signatures
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
WORLDPORT COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Date: October 3, 2000
By: /s/ John T. Hanson
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Name: John T. Hanson
Title: Chief Financial Officer
