Posted: 06th Jul, 2007 By: MarkJ
The Brightview Group Limited, which runs two prominent UK ISP's - Madasafish.com and Global Internet, is to be acquired by BT for approximately £15.8m in cash; subject to approval from Brightviews shareholders:
Established in April 2001, Brightview is a small consumer ISP with a strong reputation for high-quality customer and technical support. Brightview operates the ISP brands Madasafish and Global Internet, as well as the Which?-award-winning Waitrose ISP. Brightview is also working with John Lewis Partnership to launch its new ISP and telephony service under the GreenBee brand.
Brightview currently has around 62,000 broadband customers and generated revenues of £11.0m and EBITDA of £3.0m in the year ended 30 June 2006.
Ian Livingston, BT Retail chief executive, said: BT already provides the UKs most popular and best-performing ADSL broadband service. This acquisition will ensure that Brightviews customers can benefit from our market-leading services, resources and technology development as well as the excellent customer service theyre already receiving.
Customers of Brightviews ISPs, especially the respectable Madasafish.com brand, will no doubt be wondering what this means for them. In the past other acquisitions have been able to maintain some of their independence, yet packages often take on a design similar to BT's own.
Madasafishs existing services are already similar to BTs Total Broadband options, albeit more refreshingly open with usage allowances. It would be a shame to see this lost in favour of yet more unlimited palaver.