AIT CEO Named Interactive Week's Entrepreneur of the Year.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 6, 2000

Clarence Briggs, Chief Executive Officer of web hosting and ecommerce giant Advanced Internet Technologies, has been cited as Entrepreneur of the Year by Interactive Week in the magazine's Dec. 4 issue.

A former Army infantry officer, Briggs founded AIT in a spare bedroom in 1996. Today, the company hosts more than 120,000 domains from its 93,000 square-foot headquarters. The magazine's writers and editors chose Briggs based on "Clarence's innovative style of management and his use of those techniques in making AIT a very profitable enterprise," said Mel Duvall, senior writer and Section-B editor of Interactive Week. "Clarence has transferred his military background into the civilian world, and obviously, it's an approach that has been very successful."

AIT's revenue has grown from $7.4 million in 1999 to a projected $20.5 million in 2000. Based on the most recent quarter, the company is on a $28.8 million run rate. And, it is operating at a 43 percent net profit margin. The firm has gradually expanded to include a domain registrar, computer-training center, and most recently, application service provider division. "We're always looking for new battles to fight and new territory to conquer, metaphorically speaking," says Briggs. "People looking at AIT find the cross-over use of military strategy and terminology intriguing and wonder if that approach works. It's not just the approach, it's the people putting it into action, and this recognition has at least as much to do with them as with any one individual."

AIT ( http://aitcom.net ) is one of the largest and fastest-growing web presence and ecommerce providers in the United States. Founded in North Carolina, AIT has become one of the top hosting companies in the industry and has expansion plans targeted at the European, Latin American and Asian marketplaces. AIT also offers a variety of diversified and integrated core competencies to include domain registration, ecommerce, digital certificates, Internet access, and portal services.