Hackett: Internode won't disappear without a trace

Brenton Currie
Tuesday, 27 December 2011 04:52

IT Industry - Market

In a post on the official Internode blog yesterday, CEO Simon Hackett told customers business will remain as usual at least for the mid-term, following the pre-Christmas news that iiNet will acquire the Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Internode CEO Simon Hackett (Credit: Internode)

Hackett, who will remain at the head of the Internode division once the acquisition by iiNet is complete, says the Internode department will remain as a 'separate operating company' within iiNet.

'Because I'm [Hackett] retaining an ownership stake in both Internode and in the rest of the iiNet group, my financial interests are aligned with those of the group. I'm committed to its future and I'm putting (well, keeping) my money where my mouth is,' he said.

'Its very much 'business as usual' - but better - after this transaction is completed,' referring to the fact that the acquisition by iiNet will give Internode greater scale and capital.

It's apparent that the roll-out of the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN) is the driving force behind the acquisition, with Hackett mentioning numerous times the importance of scale provided by the deal.

'The Internet industry in this country, in a market that is now saturated, is very much a scale game,' he wrote, before mentioning that for Internode to gain a similar scale it would have had to have undertaken an Initial Public Offering (IPO)  that meant the company would've 'had the capital we needed to be a strong market player in principle, but we would not have created the necessary scale.'