Posted: 01st Feb, 2005 By: MarkJ
Mistral Internet has acquired yet another ISP in the form of Basingstoke based Netkonect. Over the past two years Mistral has managed to rack up nine takeovers!:
Like Mistral, Netkonect was started in 1994 and is therefore one of oldest and most established ISPs. The acquisition is Mistrals 9th takeover in the last two years and the largest to date.
Netkonect has a strong reseller channel and following the acquisition, will become Mistrals operation for its indirect selling model. Mistrals extensive product range will enhance Netkonects product offering to its customer base.
Netkonect is also a licensed Telecom operator with its own switch, giving Mistral additional opportunities in the telephony space. Mistrals state of the art VOIP offering will be available to Netkonects customers from the Spring. Netkonect has a substantial dial up customer base and an immediate benefit to customers of both companies will be the introduction of an accelerated dial up service giving customers between a two and five times increase in performance over normal dial up lines.
The existing Directors of Netkonect, Anne Fox, Commercial Director and Andrew Durling, Finance Director, will continue to run the day to day operations at the Basingstoke site and will now both form part of the core Mistral management group.
Anne Fox commented I am very excited to be part of an exhilarating and strategic new company and I am convinced that Netkonects existing client base will benefit greatly from the consolidation.
With sales of over £3m, the acquisition of Netkonect will mean that Mistral expects to see revenues between £18m and £20m in the 2005 calendar year, up from only £4m when it was acquired by Anthony Galley and his colleagues in April 2002.