MindSpring

MindSpring Enterprise
Public
Traded as MSPG
Industry Internet
Fate Merged with Earthlink
Successor EarthLink
Founder Charles Brewer (businessman)
Headquarters Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Key people
 Mike McQuary
Services Internet service

MindSpring Enterprise was a major Internet service provider headquartered in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia.[1][2] Founded on February 1, 1994, MindSpring merged with EarthLink on February 4, 2000, with the company retaining the EarthLink name. In 2006, the MindSpring brand was relaunched by EarthLink as a free VoIP service, but was discontinued in early 2008.

History

MindSpring was founded on February 1, 1994, by Charles Brewer in Atlanta, Georgia. It had only non-paying customers for four months and eight modems. It initially shared facilities and technical staff with Internet Atlanta, another local ISP. In June 1994 it opened for business and took on its first paying customers. By late 1994, MindSpring had obtained investment funding from ITC Holding Company and moved into offices at Georgia Tech's Advanced Technology Development Center. It established its first point of presence outside Atlanta in September 1995, and went public on NASDAQ in March 1996 with the ticker symbol MSPG.[3]

Mergers and acquisitions

MindSpring grew quickly by acquiring other companies. In September 1996 it acquired PSINet retail subscribers for their Pipeline (online servers) & InterRamp (Direct Point to Point Protocol) services. They also leased access to PSINet's USA & Canada Dialup and ISDN POP's (Points Of Presence) and Backbone Pipes. Along the way, it acquired the ISP business of Nando.net in North Carolina, although Nando continued as an online news website.

In February 1998 it acquired Internet Direct, Inc. and took over its call center in Phoenix, Arizona. That October it acquired SpryNet and its offices in Seattle, Washington. It also acquired many smaller "mom and pop" ISPs along the way.[3][4]

When it acquired Netcom in February 1999, its subscriber base surpassed 1 million. It announced its first high-speed cable service to Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1999 and DSL services to eight cities the following November. In September MindSpring launched its first national advertising campaign.[3]

On September 23, 1999, MindSpring and EarthLink announced a merger of equals that would create a new company under the EarthLink brand based in Atlanta. On February 4, 2000 the merger was completed, creating the second-largest Internet service provider in the world with over three million subscribers. MindSpring's stock symbol MSPG was retired and the new company began trading under ELNK.[3]

The 14 Deadly Sins

The 14 Deadly Sins were created by Mike McQuary.[5] After the merger with EarthLink, the 14 Deadly Sins were no longer emphasized and were eventually removed from EarthLink's website.

THE 14 DEADLY SINS OF MINDSPRING (or ways that we can be just like everybody else)[5]

  1. Give lousy service- busy signals, disconnects, downtime, and ring no answers.
  2. Rely on outside vendors who let us down.
  3. Make internal procedures easy on us, even if it means negatively affecting or inconveniencing the customer.
  4. Joke about how dumb the customers are.
  5. Finger point at how other departments are not doing their job.
  6. Customers can't get immediate "live" help from sales or support.
  7. Poor coordination across departments.
  8. Show up at a demo, sales call, trade show, or meeting unprepared.
  9. Ignore the competition, they are far inferior to us.
  10. Miss deadlines that we commit to internally and externally.
  11. Make recruiting, hiring, and training a lower priority because we are too busy doing other tasks.
  12. Look for the next job assignment, instead of focusing on the current one.
  13. Office gossip, rumors, and politics.
  14. Rely on dissatisfied customers to be your service monitors.

Relaunch

In April 2006, EarthLink relaunched its free Vling voice communication service under the name MindSpring. The service allowed for free text chatting similar to other instant message programs, as well as telephone calls to any SIP-compatible software.[6] This service was discontinued in early 2008.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Home. MindSpring. November 28, 1999. Retrieved on September 7, 2010. "© 1999 MindSpring Enterprises, Inc. 1430 West Peachtree St. NW, Suite 400, Atlanta, GA 30309"
  2. ↑ "MindSpring makes deal for high-speed access." Atlanta Journal-Constitution. May 6, 1999. F1. Retrieved on September 7, 2010. "Midtown Atlanta-based MindSpring is one of the largest Internet service providers in the country with 1.2 million subscribers."
  3. 1 2 3 4 MindSpring Milestones
  4. ↑ MindSpring: Building an Internet Empire on Traditional Values
  5. 1 2 The 14 Deadly Sins of MindSpring Archived 2000-05-10 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ Internet Archive: MindSpring Voice
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