Breathe, the fourth largest ISP in the UK which went into
liquidation last month with debts of up to £50 million, has been
bought for £1.4 million by Great Universal Stores (GUS), the
UK-based retailer that owns Argos.
GUS has said it will save around 80 of the 140 jobs at
breathe.com’s London and Warrington offices. The deal includes the
assets and technology of breathe, but not its debts.
GUS chief executive John Peace said of the acquisition:
"We are very pleased to have the opportunity
to use the information and technology we have acquired with
breathe.com. The company has been very advanced in developing
multi-device access to the internet, with ease of use the top
priority."
In a statement, the company added, “breathe.com is attractive to
GUS because of its substantial expertise and technology in enabling
multi-device access to the internet, using PCs, WAP phones and
other devices."
In the nine months to 30 September 2000, breathe generated sales
of £1.4m, predominantly from advertising revenue and commissions.
GUS expects breathe to incur losses of between £4m and £7m in its
next financial year.
Meanwhile, rival UK retailer Kingfisher yesterday sold its stake
in Liberty Surf, the troubled French ISP, to the leading Italian
ISP Tiscali. Last year, Tiscali bought the Dutch ISP World Online.
As a result of these deals, Tiscali will now have almost 5 million
European users,
The total value of Tiscali’s acquisition of Liberty Surf is
£408.5 million. Kingfisher is expected to receive around £145
million in cash and shares from the sale of its stake in Liberty
Surf.
