The news of the week was the sale of Network Solutions. Najafi Companies entered into agreement to sell the online solutions firm to global equity company General Atlantic. The current Network Solutions management team will continue to lead the company. According to Jahm Najafi, CEO of Najafi Companies, the deal is beneficial to all parties and Network Solutions will go on being a market leader. In November 2003 Najafi Companies bought Network Solutions from VeriSign Inc. This led to a total transformation of Network Solutions, which turned from a domain registrar to a leading provider of web services and solutions for small businesses.

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) announced its 10th annual WebChallenge 2007 educational event and web design competition. The event was officially started on February 8, 2007. The motto of the contest is themed "Entertaining the Web" and the purpose is the designing of a creative website that provides entertainment to its visitors and invite them to return again and again. The site should focus on humorous or informative news, interactive features, downloadable music, streaming video, online gaming, and flash animation. Eligible to participate are high school students and young adults between the ages of 14-18. The contest offers numerous benefits for students and schools. Sponsors include FourSpots, SAP, VIA Networks, Webmasters International, the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, Globalspeak, and Signs and Graphics by Roman.

During the week Microsoft announced the first Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) exam for IT and hosting professionals to gain Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist status in Configuring and Managing Windows Server 2003 Hosted Environments. The exam, "70-501 TS: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Hosted Environments, Configuring and Managing," is designed to enable a reliable measurement of technical proficiency and expertise in using Windows Server 2003 to provide hosted services. The hosting certification exam provides a more focused approach for hosting professionals who want to obtain the skills necessary to excel in the hosting industry. In addition, hosting providers can differentiate their organization and help increase their competitive advantage by employing IT professionals who have successfully demonstrated their technical skills through certification.

Thomas Weisel Partners hosted its Fifth Annual Tech 2007 Conference at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco on February 5-7, 2007. CEOs from nearly 180 of the country's leading public and private technology companies and over 500 institutional investors gathered for the three-day investment conference to discuss the outlook for the technology sector. Topics of discussions included the future of computing and areas of focus for the next wave of technology development.

cPanel officially announced its second annual Training Seminar in Houston, Texas on May 30 - June 1, 2007. The organizer promises a lot of training, tips, tricks, and discussions for the participants who will learn how to utilize cPanel to increase efficiency and profitability of web hosting operations about Apache Configuration & Troubleshooting, Apache 2, cPanel Installation & Configuration, DNS, MySQL, etc.

The BlogWorld & New Media Expo will take place November 8-9, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Join the party at the Las Vegas Convention Center where you can meet Broadband ISP's, Web hosting companies, new media advertising networks, news readers and affiliate program partners, and suppliers of blog publishing software, podcasting services, RSS syndication services, and many others. Topics will include blogging basics, monetizing your blog, podcasting, corporate opportunities in the blogosphere, building readership, RSS, Search Engine Optimization, blogging in the political arena and all you need to know about blogging.

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