[London, ENGLAND] U.K. communications company
Redstone Telecom
announced Wednesday its acquisition of DIALnet plc, a
business ISP with a strong focus on the educational market
in the U.K.
To pay for the acquisition, Redstone Telecom will
issue over 4.85 million new ordinary shares and
£1.5 million (US $2.17 million) in cash from its
existing resources.
The latest acquisition is one of many recently,
Redstone Telecom having acquired Pure Networks Limited
and its subsidiary Pure Telecommunications for £5.6 million
(US $8.12 million) in August, along with interactive voice
services company Isomatrix (UK) Limited for £6.0 million
(US $8.7 million).
Redstone Telecom views the purchase of DIALnet, an independent
Tier 1 ISP, as a strategic acquisition. DIALnet will provide
a backbone Internet network, a range of services and plenty
of Internet skills to boost the group’s growing portfolio.
One of DIALnet’s key attributes is the
learnall.net educational
portal which delivers resources into both homes and schools.
Graham Cove, chief executive of Redstone Telecom, said that
the acquisition of DIALnet was fundamental to his company’s
transformation into an integrated broadband communications provider.
“We have now assembled all of the component parts of the DSL
service we will launch when unbundling occurs in July next
year,” noted Cove, adding that Redstone Telecom will be
integrating voice, data and Internet elements into a single
package for its target SME market.
In August, Redstone Telecom published unaudited financial
results to the end of June, showing group turnover up by
144 percent to £17.8 million (US $25.8 million), but with
losses doubling to £2.9 million (US $4.2 million).