Brendan Murtagh buys SMART for 1 euro

jwt

Mr Murtagh's company, BidCo, will also take on all of Smart's debts, estimated to amount to nearly €40m. Smart will be given a 10% stake in BidCo as part of the deal.

The deal is subject to approval of shareholders at an EGM. BidCo has received undertaking from shareholders representing 42% of Smart to back the agreement. BidCo will also provide funds to keep Smart going until the shareholder meeting.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/1006/smart.html


John

jwt

Listen to Isolde explain why Comreg said nothing about upcoming disconnection for SMART customers.

http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/2178952.smil

John

damien

Which one of you is telling lies Isolde? Cos John Doherty said you knew nothing about this.

Sponge Bob

and the self same John Doherty assured the Irish Times (friday) that ALL (his words) Smart customers would be restored to some degree by Midday Friday, 4000 are still disconnected and unrestored.

I see a pattern of behaviour in Johns utterances .

Foxwood

damien.m wrote:

Which one of you is telling lies Isolde? Cos John Doherty said you knew nothing about this.

The Sunday Tribune says that eircom told Comreg in early September that Comreg needed to have an "emergency plan" in place to handle this situation, because eircom were planning to do exactly this, but that Comreg only got a couple of hours notice that it was actually going ahead.

JNive

lol, so indeed Comreg was made an ass out of, cause as usual they couldnt be arsed making a plan, i mean, why make plans lol.

And eircom gave last minute warning since they werent required to give more ( nice one comreg ) and they probably assumed there would have been a plan in place anyways so less warning the better, however there was no plan in place ( nice one comreg ) and so eircom probably couldnt believe their luck.

Gadgetman496

Extract from the Electric news site today,

The Irish Independent says

The same paper says that Eircom alerted ComReg of the need to put an "emergency plan" in place to help Smart Telecom customers easily transfer to another operator three weeks before Eircom cut them off. However, the regulator was only told last Monday evening that Eircom had served Smart with a termination notice and it is understood that at that time ComReg had requested Eircom to delay cutting off the service by 24 hours, but Eircom reportedly refused to do so.

The same paper reports on rumours of a possible merger between embattled Smart Telecom and telecoms operator Imagine. Brendan Murtagh, who looks likely to gain control of Smart following a shareholder vote at an imminent EGM, is understood to have said he plans to back Smart into Sean Bolger-owned Imagine. The paper quotes reliable sources who have reportedly said that talks have taken place between executives at both firms.

RangeR

gadgetman496 wrote:

possible merger between embattled Smart Telecom and telecoms operator Imagine...talks have taken place between executives at both firms.

Not good at all.

damien

The Sunday Times said Vodafone wanted the broadband part of Smart. Maybe since they are experts at getting what they want, they might make LLU work more than Smart. Highly doubt it though.

thegills

Not good at all

Why not.
Imagine claim to have 40,000 customers (voice and broadband). They are all probably paying line rental to eircom. So if a good portion of those customers can be migrated to Smart LLU exchanges and it makes Smart a few bob, why isn't this a good thing.
thegills

RangeR

thegills wrote:

Why not.
Imagine claim to have 40,000 customers (voice and broadband). They are all probably paying line rental to eircom. So if a good portion of those customers can be migrated to Smart LLU exchanges and it makes Smart a few bob, why isn't this a good thing.
thegills

Because, from what I remember, Imagine used sneaky tactics to get people signed up to their broadband packages. Like... It's only €9.99 a month. Then in the small print, router is an extra rental, family protection is an additional rental but enabled by default, etc. There were so many additional charges that the package worked out as expensive or more expensive than the other proividers.

It's just the way they went about it, hiding their extra charges and you couldn't get away without paying at least some of them. This has been talked about before in greatdetail but I can't remember all the facts off hand. Just not a company I would want to do business with.

Fitzee

It's unfair to say it's in the small print. The router is not included - the options are clearly there to rent for 2.99 euro a month or buy it for 44.99 euro a month. The family protection is OPTIONAL and they're giving you one month's free trial, all you need to do to cancel it is log on and cancel - as it says in the T's & C's:
"Family Protection is optional. First month is for free, if after that you don't want it, just log on to my.imagine.ie and remove it from your account. " I think the approach on the router is a good idea, then you have the option to pay for it if you need it, but for people who already have one (e.g. from the DSL provider they're leaving) or want to get their own one specific to their own needs, they don't have to pay for it! You know that the cost is calculated into the price of other broadband packages. I really think it was clever to strip out the cost like this and give people the option to take that one or use their own. As for Imagine taking over Smart, I'll believe it when I see it!!!:rolleyes:

bk

I'd say it might be more of a case of Brendan Murtagh buying out or merging with Imagine and using Imagines brand name rather then Smarts now damaged brand name will continuing to offer the same services.

Liam Byrne

Maybe there are some who would disagree, but my view is that Smart's brand name has been enhanced rather than damaged, particularly by their support staff who have been excellent over this past week.

dub45

Liam Byrne wrote:

Maybe there are some who would disagree, but my view is that Smart's brand name has been enhanced rather than damaged, particularly by their support staff who have been excellent over this past week.

Sadly I dont believe the average joe soap would go near Smart in the future.
(Much as I would want him to of course!)

Even before this debacle its amazing how many people I know that simple inertia kept with Eircom.

Tom Young

Liam Byrne wrote:

Maybe there are some who would disagree, but my view is that Smart's brand name has been enhanced rather than damaged, particularly by their support staff who have been excellent over this past week.

Liam, fair point, but I agree with the subsequent poster. Effectively the Smart brand is fairly washed out with the common man now.

Imag!ne have a rather expensive offering and (the owner) sold off ITL/Netsource like O'Brien a couple of years ago to another Teleco that went wallop GTS or Global TeleSystems. He made a few million Euro. Something ST wanted to do the same and get out. Rumour has it that the owner/s may seek to sell again. Though in fairness under their watch Imag!ine appears to be well run.

I know (knew) a number of technical staff at ST and can support your comment above, they are very helpful and quite good. Its a pity the people at board level who mismanaged the firm for so long didn't consider the futures of those bright and well trained people who bought into a fairly good idea and dream.

The people who created this, also destroyed it via cash burn and mismanagement, we should not forget this.

Its almost like an Irish ENRON or more fittingly WorldCom (though their operations grew over the bankruptcy, according to ComReg figures cue: Sponge Bob )

Does the Director of Corporate Enforcement have unilateral powers of investigation and enforcement?

Tom

Sponge Bob

ODCE has unilateral powers Tom and can haul directors in personally and investigate at will.

The 4000 Smart customers who were cut off are not too pleased at all though. One guy I know who asked about a reconnect was given the number of a CREDIT Agency to ring first by SMART themselves.

This to a person who already had a DD in place with Smart, he cancelled it the same day.

Tom Young

Sponge Bob wrote:

ODCE has unilateral powers Tom and can haul directors in personally and investigate at will.

The 4000 Smart customers who were cut off are not too pleased at all though. One guy I know who asked about a reconnect was given the number of a CREDIT Agency to ring first by SMART themselves.

This to a person who already had a DD in place with Smart, he cancelled it the same day.

Now wouldn't Noel O'Flynn, Tommy 'Telecom' Broughan and Eamonn Ryan be far better served calling ODCE in and asking them what they are to do about this?

(Funnily I had to laugh one day when TD O'Flynn stated to the Committee that he had thoroughly research an entire subject re: Telecom's ......where? .....In the Sunday Indo. "Lady In Red")

cp251

As one of their broadband customers I got a mail apologising for the fuss and telling me they upped the speed to six megs. Quite a result.
I'm not surprised they got into trouble though. They messed up our DD and have failed to take any money from us for 6 months. That was in spite of me phoning and mailing several times begging them to take our money. Usually companies chase customers to pay bills. With Smart it's the other way around.