Fasthosts Internet

Fasthosts Internet Ltd is a provider of Internet access and hosting services based in Gloucester, England. The company also operates the domain name registration service UKreg. Fasthosts was originally started by Andrew Michael, then aged 17, as part of an A-level school project. In 2006 Fasthosts was sold to German internet service provider United Internet for £61.5 million, netting Michael £46 million for his 75% stake. In September 2007, shortly after Alisher Usmanov's investment in Arsenal Football Club, Craig Murray blogged about the character of Usmanov, a Russian multi-billionaire Forbes magazine had identified as the 142nd wealthiest person in the world. A hacking incident in 2007 prompted Fasthosts to temporarily shut down customers' websites. The company noticed that its servers had been accessed in October and wrote to customers recommending that they change their passwords; in December after noticing "unusual activity" on some sites it closed down those that had yet to change their passwords until new passwords could be issued by post. In 2008 Fasthosts acquired reseller Streamline.net,