MindSpring adds to swelling customer base

Once again, MindSpring has boosted its dial-up subscriber base through acquisition. The most recent addition to its Internet fold is Cox Interactive Media's Internet access subscribers.

MindSpring gains about 5000 subscribers from the acquisition, with the majority based in the Atlanta and Austin, Texas, areas. Although MindSpring's agreement with Cox, which is primarily a media company, may appear atypical of previous MindSpring acquisitions, it is actually characteristic of the Internet service provider's buying habits.

The national ISP has a long history of buying dial-up subscribers from other companies. This year, MindSpring has acquired subscribers from 13 companies, and in 1997 it acquired subscribers from 20 companies. All these companies had healthy businesses, but they wanted to get out of the dial-up arena and concentrate on their core services.

The same is true for Cox: The media company will continue to host and maintain its city sites, which include AccessAtlanta in Atlanta; Austin360 in Austin; GoPBI.com in West Palm Beach, Fla.; Sofla.com in Miami; and BayInsider.com in San Francisco.

Acquiring dial-up subscribers has become second nature for Mindspring. "It's never a matter of making a sales pitch," said Cliff Bryant, MindSpring's director of acquisitions. "If a company decides to sell off their dial-up subscribers, we're very interested in talking to them. We're not scouring the landscape looking to gobble up companies."

If previous customer response is an indicator, MindSpring can expect to lose about 30% of the subscriber base it gained through acquisition. The churn occurs within the first 30 to 60 days and can be attributed to a few factors. "There's a lot of change that customers have to get used to in the beginning, such as a new domain name and phone service. Also, some customers may have a bias toward a local provider. Other customers have a wait-and-see attitude. But if something happens, they will up and run to another provider," Bryant said.

I-Way, New Orleans

Applied Innovations, Atlanta

Pensacola Internet, Pensacola, Fla.

PCLNet, Gadsden, Ala.

SBNet, Santa Barbara, Calif.

Earthcom, Staten Island, N.Y.

Execnet, White Plains, N.Y.

City-Online, Columbia, S.C.

FreedomNet, Richmond, Va.

DirectNet, Los Angeles

Cyber Connections, Atlanta

SpryNet, Seattle

Cox Interactive Media, Atlanta