Swets withdraws from hosting market

Subscription agents Royal Swets and Zeitlinger is withdrawing from the electronic journal hosting market. Swets has sold its Extenza e-Publishing Services division to US hosting specialists Atypon Systems.

"We have not been successful in building a business," said John Martin, chief commercial officer of Swets. "Three years ago we saw strong business in the hosting market, but it is extremely tough."

Martin said the sale is related to last year's £30.8 million shareholder cash injection. "It is connected in that it is to do with our re-focus on the subscription market." Bob Visser, Swets chief information officer concurred: "This divestment reflects Swets' overall policy of spinning off our smaller businesses to focus on core activities."

Atypon Systems said it will retain the Extenza brand, which provides hosting services to 50 publishers. Full details of the deal were not revealed.

Extenza and Atypon provide journal publishers with the software and internet hosting services for their electronic journals.

"The pricing is extremely competitive, it is really difficult to get a profit," Martin said. "There are a handful of companies chasing a small market and that has driven down the price." Simon Dessain, chief executive of hosting rivals Ingenta told IWR that hosting is a low margin business. "I think this is the first in a series of consolidations," Martin said.

"Extenza is an excellent hosting option for publisher's who need a streamlined and low cost online solution," said Georgios Papadopoulos, CEO of Atypon said. Atypon see Extenza as a low end product which will "complement" the Literatum hosting solution, which Atypon describe as being a "premium" product.

Martin said Swets has confidence in the subscription management market. ?When you look at the electronic journals market, it is growing rapidly and there are a number of economies growing rapidly.? He cited scientific information as the largest growth sector.

Swets has also sold its Extenza Marketing Solutions (EMS) division to Accucoms BV, a Dutch sales and marketing service for the publishing industry. EMS provides Accucoms with a telephone and direct marketing service.