The Planet Internet Services

The Planet's support system was called Orbit and was located at orbit.theplanet.com. Prior to the merger,{{Which|date=August 2011}} The Planet operated under several different brands. They included: "Server Matrix", which served the low-price end of the market; "Total Control", which featured servers with complete remote control, such as Dell DRAC and Remote Console capabilities;

Orbit was the main way customers knew they were dealing with The Planet as a company rather than with one of the different brands they operated. The Planet then sold servers almost exclusively through their website rather than different brands which had been unified into their website.

On November 10, 2010, GI Partners announced that the merger of The Planet and SoftLayer was effective.{{cite news |title= EV1 GI Partners Announces Completion Of Merger Between SoftLayer and The Planet |work= News release |publisher= GI Partners |date=November 10, 2010 |url= http://www.gipartners.com/news/gi-partners-announces-completion-of-merger-between-softlayer®-and-the-planet® |accessdate= August 28, 2011 }}

On November 16, 2010, The Planet was rebranded SoftLayer as part of the merger. On June 4, 2013, IBM announced its acquisition of SoftLayer.{{Cite news |title= IBM to Acquire SoftLayer to Accelerate Adoption of Cloud Computing in the Enterprise: IBM to Form New Cloud Services Division |date= June 4, 2013 |work= News release |publisher= IBM |url= http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/41191.wss |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130608133704/http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/41191.wss |url-status= dead |archive-date= June 8, 2013 |accessdate= June 5, 2013 }}

Everyone's Internet was originally a Houston, Texas-based internet service provider. It was formed on October 6, 1998 by Robert A. Marsh, Roy Marsh III, and Randy Williams. Its service was available nationwide.

Since 2000, Everyone's Internet's focus shifted toward Web hosting through its EV1 Servers subsidiary. This company was a dedicated server hosting market. At its peak in 2006, EV1 Servers hosted over 30,000 servers.{{cite web |title= Making History |work= EV1 Servers web site |url= http://www.ev1servers.net/about/History.aspx |url-status= dead |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20060822020059/http://www.ev1servers.net/about/History.aspx |archivedate= August 22, 2006 |accessdate= August 28, 2011 }}

In May 2006, private equity firm GI Partners bought a controlling investment in Everyone's Internet.{{cite news |title= Everyones Internet picks up investor: California private equity firm buys controlling stake |work= Houston Chronicle |author= Purva Patel |date= May 6, 2006 |url= http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3844608.html |accessdate= August 28, 2011}} At the same time, Everyone's Internet announced that it was merging with The Planet, in which GI Partners had invested.{{cite news |title= EV1 and The Planet Announce Merger |work= News release |publisher= GI Partners |date= May 6, 2006 |url= http://www.gipartners.com/news/ev1-and-the-planet-announce-merger |accessdate= August 28, 2011 }}

The CEO of EV1 Servers was Doug Erwin, from GI Partners, after they gained control of EV1 Servers.{{cite web |url=http://www.osirion.co.za/1-news-285-ev1_and_the_planet_announce_merger.htm |title=EV1 and The Planet announce merger |publisher=ev1servers.net}}

In October 2006, Everyone's Internet announced that it would stop providing dial-up Internet access starting November 12 and sold their dialup portion of the company to PeoplePC, another dialup Internet service provider. Some users were upset because PeoplePC requires a dialer, which does not work on all operating systems, and therefore opted to move to other Internet service providers.

As of January 2007 the EV1 name was dropped following the merger of The Planet and EV1.

{{Main|SCO-Linux controversies}}

On March 1, 2004, EV1Servers.Net announced it had licensed SCO Group's alleged intellectual property, saying that it was looking to offer its customers stability in the wake of SCO's protracted battle with the open source community. However, the deal was perceived by Linux users as using a licensing deal to support SCO Group's lawsuit against Linux. On March 25, 2004, Netcraft reported EV1 had lost 1,080 Web sites in the previous 30 days. Robert Marsh, CEO of Everyones Internet, said that although EV1 had lost some hosting business since the deal, it was not out of line with the number of sites EV1 loses in a typical month.[http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/91671/SCO_Linux_licensee_has_second_thoughts_on_deal SCO Linux licensee has second thoughts on deal]

A Utah court document{{cite web |url=http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/IBM-835-Exhibit_224.pdf |title=Exhibit 224 |publisher=groklaw.net |accessdate=November 22, 2010}} filed on April 5, 2006, revealed that Robert Marsh, co-founder and CEO of EV1, was misled by SCO's Philip Langer's claims when making the deal, and that EV1 paid $800,000 for the license.{{cite web |url=http://jeremy.linuxquestions.org/blog/_archives/2006/10/19/2429656.html |title=The truth about the SCOX/EV1 SCOsource deal |publisher=jeremy.linuxquestions.org }}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{cite web |title= Dedicated Hosting, Managed Hosting, Cloud and Web Hosting Services |url= http://www.theplanet.com |url-status= dead |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20100811174026/http://www.theplanet.com/ |archivedate= August 11, 2010 |work= Official web site |accessdate= August 28, 2011 }}
• {{cite web |title= Welcome to Everyones Internet - Houstons Largest and Fastest Growing ISP |url= http://www.ev1.net |url-status= dead |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20010331033933/http://www.ev1.net/index.html |archivedate= March 31, 2001 |work= Official web site |accessdate= January 16, 2016 }}

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Category:Internet service providers of the United States

Category:Web hosting