Only eight years since its Romanian debut, the Internet industry already looks grown-up: companies install hundreds of kilometres of fibre optics, specialised services are being developed for the "business" class, preparations are being made for launching the alternative to traditional telephony (VoIP) and, last but not least, acquisitions and mergers are intensely negotiated, which goes to show that this sector is consolidating.
This is the case of PCNET company, which was the first to connect Romania to the world wide web back in 1993, and which is now for sale. Not because it is facing troubles, but because this is a normal step in its development.
Internet service provider PCNET will be acquired next year by a strategic investor, most likely a telecom operator. "We are open and ready to carry talks with any serious company interested in taking over PCNET, irrespective of its being foreign or Romanian," Mihai Batraneanu, the company's general manager, told Ziarul Financiar. He does not rule out the possibility that the company might be bought by a non-telecom corporation.
The transaction will be concluded following a tender organised by an international consultant, Batraneanu added.
"The estimates and expectations of PCNET shareholders amount to 12 million dollars, in case the company is sold in the first half of 2002, and 16 million if the transaction is closed in the second half of next year," the company's general manager maintained.
Estimates are grounded on the financial results posted by PCNET over the first half of this year, outlined by a 120% increase in real terms of income derived from the business broadband Internet and VPN (Virtual Private Network).
"The company's team and organisational structure - since PCNET is the first Romanian company operating with an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) integrated management system, which means that all activities are developed through its own internal portal - have also provided for such an increase," Batraneanu stated.
Why was PCNET slated for sale? Because this is the next natural step in the company development, the company official explains.
"Our recipe was the classical one. We made the first step when we managed to attract a venture-capital financial investor, namely the Romanian Post Privatisation Fund (RPPF) which, with the four million dollars brought from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, made a decisive contribution to the company development.
With this money, we built the ADSL network, the first of this kind in Eastern Europe, and, subsequently, the 3.5 GHz national wireless network," the ISP manager explains.
The next step is the acquisition of PCNET by a strategic investor, such as a significant telecom operator, which can take over the current infrastructure and develop it, the PCNET official added.
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