ONE of Scotland's best-known surviving names from the dotcom boom is to disappear as it regroups under chief executive Chris van der Kuyl.
Scotland Online, the internet business owned by Dundee media dynasty DC Thomson and Noble Grossart Investments, is being rebranded as "brightsolid" as it expands across the UK on the back of a number of deals.
Van der Kuyl said the change of name
after more than a decade would help the company continue its growth in the UK-wide market where it aimed to be the "business-critical internet service provider of choice."
Scotland Online, which was set up as a joint venture between DC Thomson and Thus in 1995 with the Glasgow telecoms company selling its stake six years ago, provides internet access, hosting, disaster recovery and security services to the business market with clients including Scottish Widows, Standard Life, Dunfermline Building Society and the Scottish Government.
The company has also developed its own web ventures including significant interests in family history research.
The rebranding is the latest in a series of changes at the business which recruited games entrepreneur van der Kuyl late last year and recently acquired family history website findmypast.com from Title Research Group. The company has also won the contract to digitise, license and publish the 1911 Census of England and Wales from the National Archives in Kew. brightsolid, which van der Kuhl said was now one of the world's most successful online family history businesses, also operates scotlandspeople.gov.uk, which is a partnership between the General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon.
It employs 45 staff across its offices in Edinburgh, London and Dundee, where its state-of-the-art data centre is based.
The 'brightsolid' brand was developed after a major research exercise.
The company said the new name combined its approach to business along with its reputation for reliability.
Van der Kuyl made his name as chief executive of Vis, Scotland's most high-profile computer games company which was behind the hit game State of Emergency.
The company was later acquired by US-based Bam Entertainment but folded two years later.
He is also chairman of the Tayforth group, which has interests in games development, software, education and intellectual property development and is involved in a number of small games companies.
The full article contains 401 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
