If I remember the sequence correctly, plucky little Pipex (Britain’s first proper, commercial ISP) was bought by UUNet (America’s first proper, commercial ISP). UUNet was subsequently bought by MCI (America’s Maverick number 3 post-break-up telco), scouting round for an entry to the strange, new world of unmetered bits, which was subsequently bought by Worldcom (America’s most dynamic, most Wild West telco) in a classical boom-era, equity-driven acquisition. This is how we, here in the British telecoms backwater, got a bit part in the amazing story of Bernie Ebbers, Worldcom’s bouncer-turned-gutsy-entrepreneur-turned-desperate-fraud. Wow.
In which I try, after 25 years of blogging, to drop my ironic stance a bit.
Pipex are no longer owned by Worldcom
“GX Networks takes on Pipex name after buy-out – Oct 2003
GX Networks, the telecoms and business broadband firm, is buying ISP firm Pipex Internet for £55m and changing its own name to Pipex Communications. At the same time the company has raised £27.7m through a sale of its shares to City institutions to help pay for a deal. The acquisition, which is the fourth by GX in little more than a year, will take the company to a cash flow positive position”
http://www.pipex.net/investors/inthenews/
Why are thee no UK Telco or ISP executives on trial for wasting billions of pounds of investors money ?
god, blink and you miss it. I still think Peter Dawe should have gone to jail.