Singapore ISP Pacific Internet Thursday announced that it has formed an e-business division that it plans to list on NASDAQ in one to two years.
The new division, called Pacfusion.com, will be a regional e-business enterprise leveraging on the ISP’s regional subscriber base.
In October, NASDAQ-traded PacNet (PCNTF) indicated that it was going to invest up to US$50 million in the next two years in e-commerce, content and community services, in an attempt to transform from an ISP into a broad-based Internet business enterprise.
According to company sources, Pacfusion will shortly be launching a portal, which will feature the integration of Internet access, online search capability and Web-based services consisting e-commerce, content, community applications and communication services.
To develop its content pool, Pacfusion.com will provide free broadband-enabled server co-location services for quality content providers.
PacNet representatives say that the company is looking at India and China, with their large populations, as the division’s most significant markets.
Indian subsidiary Pacific Internet India already holds an “All India” ISP licence. Following Chinas induction into the World Trade Organization (WTO), the company intends to look for Chinese joint venture partners to offer Internet access and e-commerce services in China.
“We have been doing due diligence on several companies even before the WTO breakthrough,” said Pacific Internet’s CEO, Nicholas Lee.
PacNet is injecting US$100 million into Pacfusion and intends to raise another US$100 million in venture capital. The company expects the spin off to attain a valuation of between US$1 billion to US$2 billion from its initial public offering on NASDAQ. PacNet also boldly stated that it intends to list twelve subsidiaries of Pacfushion.com in the near future.
Lee also revealed that Pacfusion.com aims to set up a venture capital fund and to open an office in Silicon Valley with the objective of investing in U.S. Internet start ups that have the potential of doing business in Asia.
