iiNet buying Internode’s 190k customers for $105M ahead of NBN
Posted Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:08 pm by Jason Cartwright
iiNet are buying Internode. iiNet has spent years scouring the country to buy up any smaller ISP they could to expand it’s subscriber base. For years the company didn’t even advertise. This strategy for growth, proved to be a winning formula, growing rapidly to be the 2nd largest ISP in Australia.
Today iiNet have announced they are acquiring Internode’s 190,000 customers. Internode customers are some of the most passionate out there and have been quick to raise their concerns. Known for their high levels of customer service, gaming servers and unmetered content deals and leading the way in IPv6, Internode customers are clearly concerned the good days are coming to an end.
The acquisition of Internode will cost iiNet $105 Million and contain more than 450 employees. It’s interesting timing for the purchase given the impending transition of customers from ADSL to NBN over the next few years. The deal is scheduled for completion by February 29th, 2012.
With a high profile acquisition like this, there is bound to be some anxiety, iiNet CEO Michael Malone attempted to address this in the press release by saying Internode would continue to operate independently. Unfortunately the facts are often skipped over in people’s rush to predict the move a failure and bad for customers. He also said the two companies had similar backgrounds, similar values and similar service ethics.
In reality, the acquisition is likely to benefit both iiNet and Internode customers as the joint infrastructure can now be shared and optimised, hardware offerings like Fetch TV and Bob along with content partnerships should now spread to both sets of customers. There is yet to be clarification around any staff redundancies that may arise as an overlap of skills across the companies.
As a previous customer of both companies, I believe there is real parallels between the two and potential for them to compete with Telstra’s Bigpond for the top spot. Competition ultimately benefits consumers with prices being driven down and features up, but reducing the number by one is unlikely to have major impacts on local competition.
Facebook buys Gowalla, sorry we stole your business
Posted Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 10:38 am by Jason Cartwright
The world of location-based services and check-ins is certainly a fierce place to live. CNN are reporting that Facebook have purchased Gowalla, although there’s still no official post on the Gowalla blog. Known best for its gorgeous UI, and high profile investors like Kevin Rose, it seems none of that was a match for Facebook.
When Facebook launched their check-in feature last year, they were careful to invite ‘partners’ Gowalla and Foursquare, the two big players in the space at the time. With a user base of 800 million users, all but the die-hard users began moving their checkin behaviour to Facebook.
Seen by more of their friends, with more opportunity for comments, meetups and integration with an app you already use daily, it was a winning formula. While Gowalla originally started with a point of difference (collecting and leaving virtual items) the company ended up removing that.
Gowalla suffered not only from the introduction of Facebook Places, but were also lagged behind Foursquare’s rapid growth in user adoption. Foursquare offers an easy way to push check-ins to Facebook, meaning you can tap their deal system and post to your existing network there (assuming they all didn’t move to Facebook as well).
So let this be a lesson to any Industry, when Facebook decides to make a move in your direction, you’re headed for a world of hurt. The best hope you have is that they do the right thing and acquire your talent. In this instance, Facebook will take on most of Gowalla’s employees.
More information @ CNNMoney.
Its official: Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5B. Creates Microsoft Skype.
Posted Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 11:41 pm by Jason Cartwright
Microsoft is buying Skype. It turns out the Wall Street Journal was right with today’s story about the upcoming acquisition. It took only a matter of hours for Microsoft to confirm it will indeed acquire Skype for the stunning figure of US 8.5 Billion dollars. The agreement has been approved by the boards of both companies.
Microsoft says the acquisition will benefit both consumers and enterprise customers and bolster their real-time communication products and services. CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer, reportedly the man behind this move said ““Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world”. In 2010, Skype had over 170 million users.
Microsoft go on to explain how the future operations will operate. Skype will become a new business division within Microsoft and CEO Tony Bates will take the position of Microsoft Skype Division. Today’s earlier speculation about integration with existing Microsoft services both in the consumer and business environments was indeed correct.
“Skype will support Microsoft devices like Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices, and Microsoft will connect Skype users with Lync, Outlook, Xbox Live and other communities. Microsoft will continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.”
Interesting times ahead..
You can read through the full announcement at Microsoft PR
Why Microsoft buying Skype is a great idea
Posted Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 1:52 pm by Jason Cartwright
The Wall Street Journal are reporting that Microsoft is close to a deal which would see them acquire Skype for between $7 and $8 Billion. While the internet is quick to jump to conclude this means its a sure thing, in reality the WSJ article explains negotiations aren’t final and could still fall apart.
So lets think about a future where Microsoft do acquire Skype, is that really such a bad idea ? I think not. Many are quick to criticise anything Microsoft does, I believe this is short sighted and fails to look at the potential positives. Microsoft makes Windows Live Messenger for consumers and Lync for business, both of which involve instant message and video calling / conferencing. Precisely the same functionality that Skype offers.
Both platforms bring millions of users to the table, but currently these users are divided. The end result is that two desktop clients are required, along with the associated resources to have conversations with your contacts. If Microsoft do acquire skype, we’re likely to see an integration that would mean users could talk to each other on either.
Microsoft has already integrated Facebook and Yahoo! support to Windows Live Messenger, adding Skype support would be another important piece to the integration puzzle.
Now lets think about the living room implications. Skype is doing some great work getting into the living room on new SmartTVs which are all the rage at the moment. This space is also a favourite for Microsoft with their Xbox 360 and Kinect. Imagine being able to talk to you mum on her new HDTV you bought her for mothers day, while your using Kinect. The potential integration between the two competing platforms could be a wonderful thing for consumers.
I take my glass half full. Time will tell. Are they overpaying.. absolutely.
More info @ Wall Street Journal
Hitachi to be spun into Western Digital, $4.3B acquisition
Posted Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 12:21 am by Jason Cartwright
Breaking news in technology industry tonight, Western Digital have just announced they are acquiring the storage section of Hitachi. This means the number of hard drive manufacturers just decreased by 1, big news ! It turns out hard drives are big business.. WD will buy Hitachi for US$4.3 billion, made up of 3.5 billion in cash and 25 million shares at a value of $750 million.
As we move from the traditional platter-based hard drives to a new era of solid-state storage, the combined resources of WD and Hitachi should make for an interesting future in this space. As with any acquisition, there’ll be efficiencies (read layoff), but as hard drive consumers the power of two R&D departments combining should make WD a serious competitor in the SSD market.
To give you basis for comparison on the size of the deal, Adobe paid $3.4 billion for Macromedia back in 2005, while Intel Acquired McAfee for $7.8 billion last year.
Microsoft to buy sections of Yahoo!
Posted Monday, May 19, 2008 at 6:33 pm by Jason Cartwright
As your all well aware by now, Yahoo turned and ran in the opposite direction from Microsoft’s bid to acquire them. Well it turns out Microsoft’s not done chasing just yet.
Microsoft have dropped the idea of buying the entire company, to now focus on specific areas the business. Throughout the months the offer was on the table, many speculated about exactly what Microsoft was after in placing their bid. It looks like we’ll be finding out very shortly.
If it is indeed Yahoo’s advertising market and other new media properties like Flickr, Buzz, Messenger, and the audiences that come with them, then my question is – what’s left at Yahoo if they go?
This story has a long way to go, but it’s interesting none the less.
More @ AustralianIT
