UPDATE: Dell Exits Web Hosting Biz

Citing a desire to focus on its core competencies of selling computer technology, Dell has sold its year-old Web-hosting business to Sprint. The business catered to small- and medium-sized companies.

"We are focusing on our core strengths, which are as a hardware provider, server provider, and supplier of infrastructure," said a Dell spokesman. "When we launched DellHost back in early 2000, there was a peak of dotcom activity going on and just a very different kind of economy."

Dell sold the servers used to host Web sites to Sprint, as well as transferring the employees who ran the service, which amount to fewer than 100 employees, said the Dell spokesman.

Earlier this year, Dell shuttered Dell Marketplace, an exchange linking suppliers and buyers. Dell also sold its stock in application service provider Interliant.

Financial terms of the Sprint deal were not disclosed.