[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

[Paul K]

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.

[daggman]

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

[Toto]

Winmax looks like the rational to purchase Pipex, agreed.

Originally Posted by Toto

Winmax looks like the rational to purchase Pipex, agreed.

Or possibly, WiMAX is the rationale ...

[Media Boy UK]

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.

[Toto]

Originally Posted by Chris T

Or possibly, WiMAX is the rationale ...

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.

[virginmedia]

I hope Virgin Get Pipex.

[Pushkar]

Virgin Virgin Virgin!

[Toto]

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.

[awibble]

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

[Logan]

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!).

[Xaccers]

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?

[Nikesh]

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.

[Toto]

Originally Posted by awibble

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

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.