US-based ISP Asia Online has continued its buying spree in the Australian ISP industry by acquiring mid-size providers in three different states.
Brisbane Internet Technology (BIT), Sydney-based The Message eXchange (TMX)
and Dove, which operates in the South Australian city of Adelaide, have now
been added to Asia Online’s September acquisitions of Internet Access
Australia in Melbourne and Canberra-based Interact.
TMX was one of the pioneers in the local ISP industry, with a ten year
history dating back almost to the start of the Internet in Australia. BIT
concentrates on the Brisbane metropolitan area, with managing director
Brent Paddon and CEO Brett Caird among the major beneficiaries of the
sell-out.
Perth, Darwin and Hobart remain the only Australian state or territory
capitals not to be covered by Asia Online, and CEO Kevin Randolph said it
was looking at further acquisition targets in Australasia. The company
already owns an Auckland ISP called the Internet Company of New Zealand.
The company said it would combine the resources of all of these providers
into a “full service network” run out of Hong Kong, to add to other ISPs
acquired earlier this year in Hong Kong and the Philippines and a new base
in California.
“Australia and New Zealand are very important to our long-term strategy to
create a pan-Pacific network of business-oriented Internet providers to
serve not only our customers based here, but the millions of others that
have business or cultural links to the region,” said Randolph.
Asia Online has venture capital support from US financiers J.P. Morgan and
Japanese technology investment house Softbank. It said it hopes to partner
with US vendors to launch services like voice over IP, unified messaging
and secure email.
Originally a Hong Kong-based ISP with an operation in the Philippines,
Asia Online expanded its network to include Melbourne-based
Internet Access Australia, InterACT in Canberra and Auckland’s Internet
Company of New Zealand.
