British ISP veteran Pipex looks set to be snapped by any of an array of larger broadband sharks set to circle the company.
Pipex, which emerged in 1991 as the UK's first commercial internet service provider, has appointed an investment bank to consider options that could include a sale.
Sources close to BT, Carphone Warehouse, Orange, Tiscali and BSkyB all told the FT they would consider making offers, though the companies declined official comment.
Mostly as a result of previous acquisitions and consolidation, each already has a consumer broadband service - but the acquisition of Pipex could give new entrants like Carphone Warehouse the extra infrastructure capacity they need to take on more customers.
Pipex's 570,000 broadband customers make it the sixth-largest UK provider but, following a high-profile national ad campaign fronted by David Hasselhoff last year, many users have complained of worsening service.
Reader comments (2)
2:23PM on 13th March 2007
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11:49AM on 17th May 2011
I wouldn't buy out Pipex, terrible broadband provided, I was with Pipex, they bought out homecall, and then made my broadband terrible, I had constant cut outs and broadband speed issues, it was slower that the old dial up alot of the time, when I tried to complain about it, I spent most of my time trying to get through to their customer service line which cost me a fortune, none of their staff could seem to help me, and the helpdesk is poor, and to top that they put my existing contract of £6.50 for broadband up to £15.99 without telling me, so I cancelled my contract, unfortunately, I had been paying the higher price for 12 months, they said they had sent letters out informing of the price raise, but, I never recieved one, and they wouldn't give me my money back either, not easy getting out of their contract, it will cost you about £30 in phone calls to their billing dept. Make sure you cancel your direct debt, as I have read other customers being charged for their services after contract should have ended! no customers service at all.
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