Sky confirms Easynet sell-off
Management taps private equity cash
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And lo, it came to pass. Sky has announced it will sell Easynet to private equity house Lloyds Development Capital, which will back its current management.
The deal is vauled at £100m, about half what Sky paid for Easynet in 2005. However, the Murdoch empire will retain the Easynet network and LLU infrastructure, which enticed it in the first place.
Staff numbers will be unaffected by the buyout, and Easynet will continue to use the fibre network it built, under a long-term supply agreement. Sky will become an Easynet customer.
Easynet CEO David Rowe said: "This is an excellent opportunity for Easynet, its customers, and its staff. It provides us with additional capital to help fund the company's next phase of development and allows us to retain a business relationship with Sky."
The sell-off makes sense for Sky, which has little interest in competing in the business networking market. ®
COMMENTS
Lloyds Capital will expect their pound of flesh.....
.....and they will get it, extracting maximum value out of the business (i.e Bleed it dry) before then disposing of the carcass choppity-chop, oh wait, Deja Vu!
Watching the telecomms industry is like watching nature at work. One company falls prey to another, get's outsted from it's den/has food stolen, then falls prey to smaller and smaller beasts who take what they want to until finally it's just a scattering of bones.
If anyone thinks anything other then they seriously have not watched what has happened in the industry over the last 10 years at least. Employees suffer, customers suffer, management gain and shareholders gain, thank you very much and good night.
Nice knowing you Easynet, I expect a small little piece in the Reg in about 5 years announcing the burial of some bones found somewhere in London.
Oh, and don't criticise Nomes, he's right in one respect, David and Justin will do extremely well out of this, they'll grab what they can on the way down and then jump ship onto the next big beast that they like the look of (Cycle and repeat), I don't know about "the team" though, but hey, they are nameless anyway, casn easily be sacrificed (As they will be).
@John Smith 19
The group is buying "Easynet Global Services" which is the business to business side of the organization.
Sky will still own "Easynet UK" it's that bit that owns the LLU equipment and wires.
"Murdoch will retain the Easynet network and LLU"
If the boy Murdoch (AFAIK he's the one running Sky) retains the network WTF is Lloyds Capital coughing up £100m for exactly?
The Easynet name? that would make it quite a brand in the UK.
Do they perhaps mean *use* of the network and retention of the Local Loop(which presumably means the customers billing and other details, so useful for selling off to other marketing companies).
Yes I am being a pedantic grammar nazi, but if I'm wrong then Barclay's have handed out big bucks for well, not much.
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