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Hostway Completes Acquisition of .pro Registry



CHICAGO and NEW YORK, March 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Hostway Corporation, a global leader in Web hosting and managed services, and Register.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: RCOM - News), a leading provider of global domain registration and Internet services, announced today that the acquisition of core assets of Register.com's subsidiary, RegistryPro, by Hostway has been finalized. Under the agreement Hostway's wholly owned subsidiary, Registry Services Corporation, will now become the registry operator for the .pro top-level domain for professionals.
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The sale of the .pro registry received the necessary approval by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in a meeting held last week. Hostway intends to launch the registry in the second quarter of 2004.

"Hostway is very pleased that both companies and ICANN were able to bring this agreement to a successful conclusion," said Lucas Roh, president and CEO of Hostway. "We are excited about the future for the top-level .pro domain and look forward to working with the registrar community in rolling it out to lawyers, doctors, accountants and other service professionals."

According to Roh, Hostway believes the unique value of .pro domains will help foster quick acceptance and use of these names, and that the .pro domain name will become a kind of "gold standard" credential for licensed and registered professionals around the globe.

"This sale is a win-win situation," said Peter Forman, president & CEO of Register.com. "It allows Hostway to capitalize on what we still believe is a good opportunity, while we focus on our registrar business and retain the ability to benefit from .pro's success in the future. We are eager to offer .pro names to our customers as a registrar and I look forward to Hostway maximizing .pro's potential."

Registry Services Corporation will honor all existing .pro sunrise registrations. The .pro extension is available exclusively for professionals and has three basic components: a domain name, cross-verification of professional and identity information, and a digital certificate - a building block of secure communications and transactions.

About Hostway

Hostway Corporation provides Web hosting and managed services to more than 300,000 customers worldwide. Hostway helps individuals, small businesses and large enterprises achieve more value from state-of-the-art Web-based technologies by reducing their complexity and cost. Founded in 1998, Hostway is one of the five largest Web hosting companies in the world with offices in the Americas (Chicago, Tampa and Vancouver), Europe (London and Amsterdam) and Asia (Seoul and Sydney). For more information about Hostway Corporation, please visit www.hostway.com or call 1-888-290-5170.

About Register.com

Register.com, Inc. ( www.register.com ) is a leading provider of global domain name registration and Internet services for businesses and consumers that wish to have a unique address and branded identity on the Internet. With over three million domain names under management, Register.com has built a brand based on quality domain name management services for small and medium sized businesses, large corporations, as well as ISPs, telcos and other online businesses. The company was founded in 1994 and is based in New York.

Register.com Safe Harbor:

Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements. These potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks associated with Register.com's restructuring process and future business plan, including the risk that expected cost reductions and increased revenues may not be realized at all or in the intended time frame, uncertainty of future revenue and profitability from existing and acquired businesses, increasing competition across all segments of the domain name registration business, risks associated with high levels of credit card chargebacks and refunds, customer acceptance of new products and services offered in addition to, or as enhancements of, the Company's registration services, uncertainty of regulations related to the domain registration business and the Internet generally, the rate of growth of the Internet and domain name industry, risks associated with any extraordinary transactions the Company may pursue and other factors detailed in Register.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2003 currently on file.

Contacts:
Press Inquiries: Hostway: Mark Smith, 312-371-6443,
[e-mail]
Hostway: Mina Arsala, 312-238-0132,
[e-mail]
Register.com: Chris Patmore, [phone],
[e-mail]

Registrar Inquiries: Registry Services Corporation: Michael Delciello,
312-994-7680, [e-mail]
Registrypro: Jordyn Buchanan, 212-798-9262,
[e-mail]

Investor Inquiries: Register.com: Stephanie Marks, [phone],
[e-mail]




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Source: Hostway Corporation