MindSpring

src: www.mindspringpartners.com

MindSpring Enterprise is a premier Internet service provider headquartered in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Founded on February 1, 1994, MindSpring joined EarthLink on February 4, 2000, with the company maintaining the EarthLink name. In 2006, the MindSpring brand was relaunched by EarthLink as a free VoIP service, but was discontinued in early 2008.

Video MindSpring

History

MindSpring was founded on February 1, 1994, by Charles Brewer in Atlanta, Georgia. That's just a customer does not pay for four months and eight modems. It originally shared facilities and technical staff with the Atlanta Internet, another local ISP. In June 1994, the business opened to businesses and received the first paying customers. By the end of 1994, MindSpring had obtained investment funds from ITC Holding Company and moved to an office at Georgia Tech's Advanced Technological Development Center. It set its first point of presence outside Atlanta in September 1995, and became public on NASDAQ in March 1996 with the ticker symbol MSPG .

Mergers and acquisitions

MindSpring grows rapidly by acquiring other companies. In September 1996, he acquired PSINet retail customers for their Pipeline (online server) & amp; InterRamp Service (Direct Point to Point Protocol). They also rent access to PSINet USA & amp; Canada Dialup and ISDN POP's (Points Of Presence) and Backbone Pipes. Along the way, he acquired ISP Nando.net business in North Carolina, although Nando continued as an online news website.

In February 1998, the company acquired Internet Direct, Inc. and took over his call center in Phoenix, Arizona. October it acquired SpryNet and its office in Seattle, Washington. It also acquires many smaller mom and pop ISPs along the way.

When it acquired Netcom in February 1999, its customer base exceeded 1 million. It announced its first high-speed cable service to Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1999 and its DSL service to eight cities in November next. In September MindSpring launched its first national advertising campaign.

On September 23, 1999, MindSpring and EarthLink announced an equal merger that would create a new company under the Atlanta-based EarthLink brand. On February 4, 2000, the merger was completed, creating the world's second largest Internet service provider with more than three million subscribers. The stock symbol MindSpring MSPG has retired and the new company started trading under ELNK .

The 14 Deadly Sins

The 14 Deadly Sins were created by Mike McQuary. After merging with EarthLink, 14 Deadly Sins are no longer emphasized and eventually removed from the EarthLink website.

14 DINNER SINS FROM MINDSPRING (or ways we can be just like everyone else)

Delivers bad service signals-busy, disconnects, time off, and rings without an answer.

It depends on the outside vendor that disappointed us.

Create easy internal procedures for us, even if that means negatively impacting or disrupting customers' convenience.

A joke about how stupid a customer is.

Finger dots on how other departments do not do their job.

Customers can not get direct "direct" assistance from sales or support.

Bad coordination across departments.

Appears in demos, sales calls, trade shows, or meetings without preparation.

Ignore the competition, they are much lower than us.

There are no deadlines that we do internally and externally.

Get lower priority hiring, hiring, and training because we're too busy doing other tasks.

Find the next job task, instead of focusing on the current one.

Office gossip, rumors, and politics.

Count on disgruntled customers to monitor your service.

Maps MindSpring

Relaunch

In April 2006, EarthLink launched Vling's free voice communications service under the name MindSpring. This service allows for free text chats similar to other instant messaging programs, as well as phone calls to SIP compatible software. This service was discontinued in early 2008.