Topic: Pipex

Pipex Communications which is one of the UK's oldest ISPs and bought by Tiscali last year has decided on a name change and have gone for the less than catchy name of GX Networks Ltd.

Communications, such as emails and bank charges from Pipex will now show as GX Networks, but according to an email sent to customers it will be "business as usual" although Tiscali have made no secret of wanting to shift it's broadband business, so it could be that ex-Pipex customers will get another owner.

Pipex is rumoured to reveal who it has chosen as the preferred bidder for the sale of it's web-hosting and business telecom divisions.

Although there are not many details as yet, it's thought that it has three potential groups ready to do a deal with, two of these are thought to be Oakley Capital, the private equity group set up by Pipex founder Peter Dubens, and telecoms company Thus Group.

Pipex is continuing to sell itself off with rumours of the sale of it's hosting and business service division.

The ISP sold it's broadband and voice business to Tiscali in September netting £210m in the process, the sale of the other services is predicted to gain it another £130m and that proceeds would be returned to shareholders.

Pipex has announced new broadband packages today and are scrapping the old 'unlimited' tag in favour of clear and transparent download limits.

The ISP is looking to be “honest and straight forward to customers� by giving customers fixed download limits rather than applying a Fair Usage Policy, which to most users is a grey area as these limits are not usually published.

As before the packages come in Mini, Midi, Max and Pro and have the same up to 8Mbps download speeds, with download limits at 2GB, 10GB, 30GB and  100GB respectively. Prices range from £9.99 a month for the mini, which Pipex claim is suitable for 70 per cent of its customers to £39.99 for the Pro. Mini and Midi customers receive a free modem but can upgrade to the wireless router that Max and Pro customers get for an additional £30. All packages can be topped up with extra download allowance for £3 per extra 3GB.

An interesting point is that these packages come with a 30 money-back guarantee which allows customers to cancel without any charges if they are unhappy with the service.

The sale of Pipex to rival ISP Tiscali has finally gone though after the OK from industry regulator Ofcom.

Tiscali will now officially take over the broadband and voice divisions of Pipex Communications, though it has not bought 123-reg, the domain registar or web-hosting service WebFusion, which were part of the Pipex group.

Pipex itself was no stranger to buying other ISP's with it purchasing Bulldog Internet and Freedom2Surf in the past, but now it's become part of the Italian Giant. Tiscali's customer base is just under two million, which makes it the fourth largest ISP, although it still has only half the customers for the industry leader BTmarket who have over four million UK  customers.

Share holders of Pipex have voted in favour of an offer for it's broadband customers by Tiscali at their Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Friday.

The deal will cost Tiscali £210 million and although they have voluntarily alerted the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) there is no reason to expect the deal not going through.

Plans are to move Pipex customers to Tiscali LLU connections as soon as possible, but it's not know if the Pipex badge will be retained or the whole operation will be merged under the Tiscali name.

Pipex to announce that it has sold itself to Italian giant Tiscali in a £210 deal, but it's not all good news for some.

Originally the company had hoped to sell itself as a complete unit, but this no longer seems possible, so it has decided to offload it's broadband and voice customers to it's rival. What will happen to customers on it's hosting services or the rest of the business has not been revealed so far.

Pipex has nearly 600,000 broadband customers after itself acquiring many smaller ISPs in the shape of Bulldog, Freedom2surf, Nildram and Toucan over the years.

Pipex are giving customers the chance of six months free broadband if you sign to their pipexmini + anytime service until 17th June.

The bundle includes a free modem, anti-virus and an 8Mbps connection, but only includes 2GB on usage each month with any extra usage being charged at £2.70 per extra 3GB which may push the price up unless you are a light user.
The package also includes free local and national phone calls with discounts of 25% for mobile at 98% on international calls.

Pipex has released it's financial results for the last year which show that profits have fallen due to borrowing to pay for rival ISPs Bulldog, Toucan Homecall during the year.

Pre-tax profits were down to £4.8m, from £5.1m a year earlier, and margins went the same way from 46 percent to 38.2 percent last year. The number of connected broadband customers rose from 283,000 to 570,000 due to the acquisitions.

At the same time it took a swipe at the media who have been reporting the ISPs attempts to find a new owner, allegedly attracting the attention of Virgin Media, BT and the Carphone Warehouse.

The statement is likely to do little to end speculation, while it seems potential buyers are cooling off, the lure of over half a million customers could still make it an interesting target for buyers.

Pipex who is currently looking for a new owner may find itself without anyone to buy the company after another potential bidder has pulled out.

The £450m action for the company had, at one stage, seen the UKs heavyweights battle to put in a bid, but the quest maybe over as only one potential bidder remains. So far BSkyB and Virgin media have quit the action, and now another potential suitor, BT, have decided to do the same leaving only The Carphone Warehouse in the frame.

The interest maybe short-lived as The Carphone Warehouse sees the asking price as over inflated, and when compared with it's purchase of AOL it does seem this way. Last year bought AOLs 1.5m broadband customers for £370m, which seems a bargain when compared to Pipex's 600,000 customers which may cost it closer to half a million.