improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article s tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on wikipedia . see wikipedia s guide to writing better articles for suggestions . february 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . september 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message the neutrality of this article is disputed . relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met . february 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message savvis type subsidiary industry information technology founded 1995 headquarters town and country mo united states key people jeffrey h. von deylen president products it services including cloud managed hosting colocation and network services revenue us 933 million 2010 operating income us 24.5 million 2010 net income us 53.9 million 2010 number of employees 2 440 as of december 31 2010 update parent centurylink 2011 present website www.savvis.com primary asn 3561 peering policy restrictive traffic levels 100 gb s savvis formerly svvs on nasdaq and formerly known as savvis communications corporation and later savvis inc. is a subsidiary of centurylink a company headquartered in monroe louisiana . 1 the company sells managed hosting and colocation services with more than 50 data centers 2 over 2 million square feet in north america europe and asia automated management and provisioning systems and information technology consulting . savvis has approximately 2 500 unique business and government customers . 3 4 contents 1 early history 1.1 diamondnet becomes savvis 1.2 founders part with savvis 2 growth and acquisitions 2.1 name change 2.2 gartner magic quadrant 2.3 content delivery network divestitures 2.4 expanding emea presence 2.5 acquisition of fusepoint 2.6 recovery 2.7 acquisition by centurylink 3 controversy 3.1 spam support allegations 3.2 american express lawsuit 3.3 suits over security audits 4 references 5 external links early history edit this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . august 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message savvis was founded in november 1995 under the name diamondnet by cto coo timothy munro roberts and ceo andrew gladney . the two had met in the st. louis area in 1994 where both lived with roberts working for a computer store and gladney a customer . gladney put up the initial capital 600 000 or 1 million according to different sources for a 75 % stake in the startup with roberts stake the remaining 25 % . 5 gary zimmerman recruited by roberts from sbc communications inc. to become vice president of engineering at savvis in november 1995 built out robert s first national network design . the original network design was unique within the industry at the time it became fully operational and there was significant coverage and discussion in the trade press regarding both the network and its architect roberts . in 2001 the last year in which robert s original design was in use savvis was ranked the 1 fastest backbone network by keynote systems an independent network ratings service . roberts closed a revenue contract with apple computer inc. as their first large customer dealing with david zimmerman and marty suzuki at apple s cupertino headquarters . by leveraging the apple computer customer reference and testimonials the company was able to close additional large contracts with other industry providers and it quickly gained wide industry recognition . during this growth spurt the company attracted the notice of st. louis gateway venture partners who subsequently invested millions of dollars . after the gateway investment sam sanderson former ceo of rogers cable was brought to helm the company . sanderson brought much needed support to the company closing substantial contracts and placing the company into an aggressive marketing position . contemporaneously bob murphy was named to the chief financial officer position murphy was previously the cfo of williams communications . murphy in turn attracted additional capital and a sound financial management team . diamondnet becomes savvis edit in 1996 diamondnet changed its name to savvis communications corporation . 6 founders part with savvis edit in 1997 roberts left the company and gladney left his position as ceo to become vice chairman . gladney s relationship with savvis ended shortly thereafter in 1999 . by the time of the company s ipo in 2000 gladney s stake was 1 % of the outstanding shares . 5 growth and acquisitions edit in 1999 savvis was acquired by bridge information systems . after a year as a bridge company savvis was spun off by bridge as a public company . 6 savvis february 2000 initial public offering ipo was listed on the nasdaq stock exchange as svvs . since its ipo savvis has grown both organically and through strategic acquisitions . in 2002 savvis purchased wam net a content management and media application service followed in 2003 by a purchase of the hosting operation and customers of intel online services . in 2004 the company purchased the assets of cable & wireless america which included 15 data centers and the customers of exodus communications the tier 1 internet backbone previously owned by mci the content delivery network cdn from digital island and a significant professional services organization for 155 million in cash and assumed liabilities of approximately 12.5 million . 6 name change edit in 2005 savvis announced a change in its name from savvis communications corporation to savvis inc. to reflect company expansion from network services to global it services . 7 until january 21 2014 savvis was referred to as savvis a centurylink company an autonomous managed hosting entity under the centurylink umbrella . 8 in early 2014 the company name was changed to centurylink technology solutions in order to better align the savvis business unit and the centurylink parent company . in early 2015 centurylink technology solutions was fully absorbed within centurylink s it services group it is now unified under one name centurylink . gartner magic quadrant edit savvis was well positioned in the magic quadrant for hosting published by gartner . 9 10 the gartner report commented on savvis for its range of quality services . in particular gartner noted that savvis had an above average customer portal and strong history of delivering utility offerings . content delivery network divestitures edit in 2006 savvis announced that level 3 communications would acquire savvis content delivery network cdn services business for 135 million ; the deal included network assets customer contracts and intellectual property used in savvis cdn business . 11 expanding emea presence edit in 2007 savvis opened a data center in singapore increasing its presence in the asia pacific region . 12 the following year it opened a new data center in london increasing its services in europe . 13 acquisition of fusepoint edit in june 2010 savvis acquired canadian technology firm fusepoint including data centers in toronto montreal and vancouver . 14 recovery edit in january 2011 savvis was positioned in the leaders quadrant of the magic quadrant for cloud infrastructure as a service and web hosting 2010 edition by gartner an it research and advisory firm . savvis is positioned alongside 19 other web hosting providers including at & t rackspace verizon business terremark and sungard in the measurement of completeness of vision and ability to execute . 15 as well the company launched its global cloud focused savvis alliances program for channel partners . 16 savvis also entered into partnership with bharti airtel limited to launch a major strategic managed hosting and cloud computing initiative in india . 17 acquisition by centurylink edit on april 27 2011 telecommunications firm centurylink inc. and savvis reached an agreement whereby centurylink will acquire savvis through a buyout of outstanding common shares in cash and stocks for approximately 2.5 billion usd . this valued savvis at 40 per share which represented an 11 % premium over savvis closing price on april 26 2011 . under the agreement savvis shareholders are to receive 30 per share in cash and 10 in shares of centurylink common stock . 18 in september 2011 savvis announced facility expansions in existing markets including atlanta boston and toronto ; as well as the opening of 2 new data centers in seattle and piscataway new jersey . this adds 100 000 square feet of raised data center floor space in the 5 cities bringing the total sellable global footprint to 2 million square feet . 19 controversy edit spam support allegations edit on 8 september 2004 savvis operations security manager alif terranson left his position and went public with internal savvis documents releasing them to media outlets including the bbc 20 the register 21 and others . 22 these documents disclosed that savvis was soliciting the business of spammers and that savvis was realizing between 200 000 to 2 000 000 in per month from these customers . 23 as a result of the negative media attention savvis resumed business using spamhaus a worldwide organization of spam fighters to prevent and resolve customer spam issues . in a joint press release steve linford ceo and founder of the spamhaus project was quoted spamhaus has long recognized savvis as a white hat network with exemplary policies and procedures to control the proliferation of spam . we are pleased to work with savvis to fight against spam and encourage others in the industry to adopt their leadership model . 24 american express lawsuit edit in october 2005 then ceo robert mccormick and savvis were listed as defendants in a claim brought by american express . the case involved charges made on mccormick s corporate american express card that were reported to be 241 000 at a new york strip club scores . while mccormick asserted that the charges were fraudulent scores claimed to have fingerprints of mccormick s used specifically to verify that his large charges were legitimate . 25 in november 2005 after an investigation into the matter by the audit committee of the board of directors savvis accepted mccormick s resignation . in march 2006 savvis announced that the litigation brought by american express against savvis mccormick and scores had been resolved in a negotiated settlement . 26 suits over security audits edit in 2009 multiple lawsuits were filed against savvis alleging that savvis improperly certified as compliant with credit card security standards processors which may have resulted in significant security breaches . an analysis of one complaint reported according to a post incident forensic analysis at the time savvis issued the certification cardsystems had been improperly and continuously storing unencrypted cardholder data . 27 references edit global offices . savvis . retrieved on august 14 2011 . corporate headquarters savvis 1 savvis parkway town & country mo 63017 miller rich . savvis enters frankfurt market with new data center savvis 2010 annual report savvis 2009 annual report a b 7 up vs. coke part 1 riverfront times a b c savvis inc. savvis inc savvis communications changes name to savvis inc telecom cloud formations magic quadrant for north american web hosting 2006 savvis inc archive level 3 acquires savvis cdn network savvis opens new data center space in singapore savvis opens slough data center in uk savvis buys canadian provider fusepoint . savvis named to leaders quadrant in industry analyst savvis looks to cloud channel for growth savvis partners with bharti airtel for india initiative centurylink to buy cloud provider savvis for 2.5 billion lee justin web host savvis announces new data center openings and expansions bomford andrew 2004 09 08 .