Has Kordia bought Orcon?

Update It was indeed Orcon. Kordia got it for NZ$24.3 million.

The word in the Internet business is that the ISP Kordia will announce tomorrow Monday that it has bought Auckland provider Orcon. It's just a rumour at the moment, but neither managing director Seeby Woodhouse or general manager Scott Bartlett are returning calls and messages.

Kordia wants an "RSP" as it calls it, or a Retail ISP, presumably to bypass its wholesale partners like Telecom and reach customers directly. However, I would've expected Kordia to go for a provider with more telco experience and/or better presence in the provinces, like BayCity, ICONZ or Compass Communications, or even Snap Internet.

Then again, Kordia was pipped to the post last year, when Vodafone bought Ihug for $40 million. I heard that $40 million is Woodhouse's price tag for Orcon but also that Kordia only offered $33 million for Ihug.

Orcon has a decent number of retail customers, a fair few smaller ISPs under its wings, and has taken the first steps towards telco-dom by signing an MVNO wholesale deal with Vodafone plus installed a single soft-switch. None of the telco stuff is operational yet, however.

Anyway, tomorrow midday we'll know. Errm, how about Woosh you say? Doubt it. :)


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