iiNet to buy Westnet for $81 million
ASX-listed ISP iiNet is to buy fellow West Australian service provider Westnet for AU$81 million in cash.
The acquisition will bring iiNet closer, in subscriber terms, to Australia’s top two ISPs, boasting a total of 685,000 subscribers, 365,000 of which are on DSL. At last count, Telstra counts around 2.5 million Internet subscribers, while Optus counts close to one million.
Privately owned Westnet is currently the nation’s sixth largest ISP — employing 560 staff, with 180,000 Internet subscribers, 31,000 telephony customers and 11,000 Web hosting customers. Over half of its revenues are derived from the resale of wholesale ADSL broadband connections provisioned by Telstra and Optus. The company is expecting FY08 revenues of AU$133.6 million, a growth of 32 percent over FY07, and is expecting to post its first net profit after tax of AU$7 million after several years of minor losses.
Source & More Info: ZDNet
