VIA NET.WORKS has postponed a crucial shareholder meeting to approve the sale of its business to UK ISP Claranet.

Although VIA, a business-focused telco operating in Europe and the US, has received the thumbs-up for the deal from those shareholders who have voted so far, it hasn't secured enough votes to give it the go-ahead.

Instead, it's giving shareholders more time to vote on the plans to save the business.

The shareholder meeting was scheduled to have taken place on 29 June, but has been delayed until 22 July.

In a statement VIA said that the proposal to sell the company to Claranet had the "overwhelming support of the shareholders who have voted, but only one third of the total votes of the outstanding voting shares have been received to date".

Via needs at least half of the votes for the sale to go-ahead.

In March VIA reported that it faced an "urgent liquidity problem" that could lead to the closure of the business ISP. In April Claranet agreed to rescue the firm with a $27m offer to buy out VIA subject to shareholder approval. ®

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