Regional company Star, one of the UK’s largest independent business-to-business internet services providers (ISP), has announced that chief executive officer Ben White has purchased the company.

The business, which was formed in Cirencester and later moved to Gloucester, will see Star separate from the MessageLabs Group and operate independently under the existing management team - led by Mr White, its co-founder.  The group as a whole employs around 750 people.

MessageLabs, founded by Star in 2000, is a leading provider of integrated messaging and web security services, with over 15,000 clients ranging from small business to the Fortune 500 located in more than 80 countries.  It provides a range of managed security services to protect, control, encrypt and archive communications across email, web and instant messaging. 

“The announcement is an important milestone for Star because it will enable the company to focus on innovation and growth, and allow it to chart its own course,” the company said.  Star provides business Internet services to more than 4,000 mainly small and medium-sized, businesses.  Its revenues were in excess of £40m in the financial year 2006. 

Mr White said:“Star has been innovating since its inception, providing far more than simple connectivity and hosting, and independence from the company that it gave birth to will enable Star to step up our pioneering work in the small and medium-sized business arena. 

“As the inventor of internet-level virus scanning, a market now worth billions of pounds, we have spent the last 10 years making the latest internet technologies secure, relevant and accessible to fast-growing companies. The separation will enable us to continue this work with renewed focus.” 

Star has recently created a number of business-ready technology packages designed specifically to address the needs of growing businesses.  These packages enable companies to benefit from the best-of-breed connectivity, hosting, email and security technologies from the leading providers without the financial, technical and resource costs associated with sourcing and implementing a solution independently.