BT opens wallet for Brightview

Customer service experts brought in

By Chris Williams • Get more from this author

Posted in Telecoms, 6th July 2007 09:02 GMT

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BT has coughed £15.8m cash for Brightview, the ISP group behind internet access from Waitrose, Madasafish, and Global.

The Brightview ISP brands, which have a total of 62,000 broadband customers, regularly buck market trends to top customer satisfaction surveys. Established in 2001, the firm was last sold in 2004, for £25m, when it had 300,000 dial-up punters.

BT Retail chief executive Ian Livingstone said: "This acquisition will ensure that Brightview's customers can benefit from our market-leading services, resources, and technology development as well as the excellent customer service they're already receiving."

Privately-held Brightview coined EBITDA of £3m for the year ending 30 June 2006, on the back of revenues of £11m. The purchase is BT's second swallow of a relative minnow in the last year, after the £67m in loose change it dropped for PlusNet last November.

BT was linked to pricier takeover target Pipex earlier this year, but the rumour fizzled, with Tiscali emerging as the only interested party. ®

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