[Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

I don't know if this has already been posted but article in The Times says Pipex is up for sale for £300 Million. See Link below.


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle1503309.ece

Re: Pipex For Sale
 

Now why am I not suprised since they recently bought the Bulldog user base and did very little to resolve the issues the customers were facing.

[Merged]Virgin Media after Pipex
 

according to this report virginmedia are the front runners to purchase pipex, the isp with the Hoff.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/21/pipex_virgin/

350 million is a lot of dosh.

Wimax could be the key

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Winmax looks like the rational to purchase Pipex, agreed.

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Or possibly, WiMAX is the rationale ... ;)

Virgin look set to buy Pipex.
 

UPDATE:

Virgin Media is hot favourite to buy broadband company Pipex for about £470 Million, with a deal possible this week. But if the move goes ahead, Virgin, which has 3.3million internet customers and would add 570,000 more with Pipex, could walk into a regulatory storm over its market share.

Rival bidders for Pipex, including The Carphone Warehouse, BSkyB and BT, say they cannot compete fairly with Virgin becuse it does not have to open up its cable network to them.

Virgin is already the largest internet provider in the UK, but acquiring more customers through the Pipex deal - whose customers are carried on BT lines - could be investigated by the Office of Fair Trading.

The Pipex sale has also raised speculation about the future of Sardinia-based Tiscali, which has two million UK broadband customers. Tiscali has says it is not for sale, but it has an expensive loan to finance and investment bankers have been touting the group to rivals in the UK.

Info from The Mail on Sunday.

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Tisk, should have checked my flippin spelling.

---------- Post added at 12:30 ---------- Previous post was at 12:17 ----------

I bet Sky beat VM to it.

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

I hope Virgin Get Pipex.

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Virgin Virgin Virgin!

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

It's looking very unlikely that VM will get Pipex, they would have to purchase the debt, which would plunge VM further down the debt road. Take a look here.

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

The cost is high, but if RB decides that it would be best for the company, im sure some more money could magically appear

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Oh God...

I left Pipex for Virgin (or NTL at the time).

Pipex had really gone down hill. Few years ago they were arguably the best ADSL ISP out there. Then it all started to go wrong. They bought up other smaller ISP's and just couldn't handle it.

I had one good experience with Pipex that lasted years, and then I had one bad experience which lasted weeks of conversations, e-mails, letters until eventually they let me out of my contract and I switched to cable.

I've never looked back since. Cable > ADSL (or anything that BT is involved in!).

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

The things NTL will do to take over this site! :shock:

whois -h co.uk.whois.demon.net cableforum.co.uk

Domain name: cableforum.co.uk


Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

Registrant's agent:
Pipex Communications UK Ltd t/a 123-Reg.co.uk

I know, I know, but it's something for the conspiracy theorists don't you think? :D

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Seems odd to me that Virgin Media keep trying to expand their ADSL part of the company when they are always advertising having superior cable lines which aren't affected by how far you live. I think they should spend the money on expanding cable around the UK.

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Doesn't matter, they would still be burdened with more debt they would or may have to refinance, and as VM stock is traded in the US I doubt whether it will sit well with investors.

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Not odd at all if you think about it. The UK is not fully cabled and many areas have no cable access, whereas thanks to an OFCOM mandate when BT privatised most of the UK has a telephone line.

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Furthermore, there's the cost aspect. Cabling streets costs a fortune and simply isn't viable while VM is still coping with the combined, restructured debt of its constituent parts (NTL, Telewest and C&W, plus all the operations they between them bought up over the years).

Expanding services onto the BT network incurs marketing and usage charges, which can be met as revenue spending, but very little capital investment.

In a stock-market driven economy, it is not enough for a plc to simply be good at what it is already doing. It is obliged to continually grow and expand to 'enhance shareholder value'. VM is in a bit of a bind because it's known as a cable company, yet cable is just about the only thing it can't afford to do at the moment.

I don't think it is any coincidence that the new name for the company makes no mention of the word 'cable'. They are pushing themselves as a total communications company - Virgin *Media* - and will be looking to exploit as many different means as possible in order to meet their obligation to grow and expand over the coming years. One of the reasons VM's interest in Pipex is significant is, as others have already observed, the fact that Pipex has one of only two WiMAX licences issued in the UK. The attraction of being able to blanket cover an uncabled neighbourhood with a wireless signal rather than miles and miles of cable is obvious, especially when you already have a national infrastructure sitting there waiting to plug it into.

I think we will only see large-scale cabling in the futre *if* VM can turn around its lingering debt mountain and *if* at that time cable is still the most effective means of delivering the services it wishes to provide.

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Update on Pipex sale. Both VM & Sky have cooled on purchase. See link


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle1594153.ece

Re: [Merged]Pipex for Sale - VM interested?
 

Update on Pipex sale. I have just read in Mail on Sunday that BT have now also pulled out of Pipex sale (along with Sky & VM) which leaves only Carphone Warehouse as potential bidder. It seems the sale price is to high.