Purchases ahoy!
Two big purchases overnight. Can’t keep up!
Late last night, it was confirmed that Vodafone (NZ) had purchased local ISP iHug for $41 million. iHug is the third largest, and provides telephone, satellite and broadband services. This is an interesting step for Vodafone, as the only way to enter the market with a bang is by buying one of the largest in that market. With the advent of local loop unbundling starting here early next year, I suppose that a co-operative wired and wireless world is brewing in Vodafone’s head.
Well, one giant had been in a certain market for a while, but failed to catch up. It has been confirmed that Google purchased YouTube for US$1.65 billion. Now, we must remember that Google was perhaps one of the first companies to have shared video and searching, but it quickly got overtaken by the start up. Google Video has only recently put YouTube style features in.
It does seem to be that if you want to make a bang in a market, you just buy into the largest company of that market.
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“Vodafug:” it’ll be interesting to see how quickly the global giant moves - Vodafone will have to be fast too, because the others aren’t going to want to sit around and be steamrollered, especially Telecom. Ultimately though, I suspect it’ll kill off the smaller ISPs leeching a margin on Telecom’s DSL and dial-up, and who never built networks of their own.
“GooTube:” It only took the three founders just over a year to become billionaires… god, I’m jealous.