Hungary’s Euroweb Aims to Become Regional ISP Powerhouse

Hungarian company Euroweb
International Corp. says it plans to continue its aggressive expansion policy by acquiring several more ISPs in Central and Eastern Europe.

Euroweb took to the acquisition trail at the beginning of the year, and it has forged itself into one of the leading ISPs in the region. Local analysts expect the expansion plan to be a step towards the purchase of Euroweb itself by a larger European or American company.

Euroweb currently owns three ISPs in Slovakia — GSN, R-Net and Eunet — and CzechNet in the Czech Republic. The company recently purchased Isternet SR in Slovakia and Inicia in the Czech Republic. Inicia will add Web design to Euroweb’s portfolio of services.

“These acquisitions will add to our
already strong market presence in these two important countries of the
region,” said Mr. Robert Genova, president of Euroweb International.

Euroweb transformed itself into an ISP in 1997, and has a current market capitalization is about US$11 million. The company managed Hungarian subsidiary Teleconstruct, a digital telephone switches and fiber optic line company, until it sold the holding in December 1998.

The core business of the company is Euroweb Rt, the Hungarian subsidiary
that was created in 1997 from three ISPs — Eunet, E-Net and MS Telecom. In November 1998, Euroweb sold its 51 percent stake to Hungarian telco PanTel. Then it launched its acquisition strategy.

While local analysts believe that Euroweb is preparing itself for larger acquisition, some are speculating that an international telco — specific name-dropping has included Norwegian Telenor and Danish Tele Danmark — has already agreed on the deal.