Pesky Subsidiaries

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I use Pipex (UK) as my broadband vendor. Pipex have an enviable record in the telecoms reseller market for great uptime percentage at a very reasonable price. In my eyes they are also a darling investment. That successive Pipex management has improved on then exceeded customer satisfaction and improved the ROI is fact.

Years ago they were a subsidiary to a large corporation which was then strongly on the acquisition trail. And I sometimes think of what might have occurred had the corporation not eventually hived off Pipex. Most likely not a lot of good. In my view, getting rid of a subsidiary whose core business is unaligned to the parent’s endeavours is sometimes not always in the better longterm interest of the corporation but justifiable if the existing management team lacks vision and cannot innovate a solution to support growth and set a course for the subsidiary to take. So, the corporation sold Pipex off for a pittance in similar fashion to what RACAL did to a pesky irritating subsidiary they called Vodafone. Look what happened to that little pest!

All it took for Pipex to succeed was a new owner with a dream to change a pest into a success. He did and earned a cool £32m for him and his family when he sold the company on. Since selling, the new management has enhanced and delivered more on the original dream to the point where Tiscali is now salivating at the prospect of snapping up the broadband subscriber base.

Oh dear. Dream service is over. I will have to look for a new Broadband supplier. Tiscali do not infuse me with confidence.

Pesky Subsidiaries