Deadline to buy Tiscali approaching

[Noreen]

I love the two comments. http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3531-deadline-to-buy-tiscali-approaching.html

[Rik]

 

I tend to agree with the sentiments. How do you value a business which has never made a profit, I wonder?

[madasahatter]

Difficult one Rik, but on the other hand, they do have a big user base, and for a lot of the ISPs, it's all about numbers.

[Rik]

Though the advent of the iPlayer and other, similar, services must be changing the rules in that respect, Mad.

[madasahatter]

Take your point, but all they do is continue to FUP you if you start to use them so you move.....

[Rik]

Which makes the size of the customer base an irrelevance, of course.

[madasahatter]

What they want, of course, is a huge customer base that doesn't actually use the service for more than a bit of surfing and the odd e-mail. What they get, on the other hand, is another matter entirely 

[Gary]

What they want, of course, is a huge customer base that doesn't actually use the service for more than a bit of surfing and the odd e-mail. What they get, on the other hand, is another matter entirely 

Time for the Abacus?

[madasahatter]

Time for the Abacus?

the crystal ball may be more accurate.........

[Gary]

the crystal ball may be more accurate.........

Maybe just balls so to speak, mad

[cavillas]

I tend to agree with the sentiments. How do you value a business which has never made a profit, I wonder?

How about if we club together and put in a bid for say...£2.50 for the company.

[Rik]

Let's go mad, Alf, and make it a fiver.

[Gary]

Let's go mad, Alf, and make it a fiver.

Hostile take over then Rik

[Rik]

Hostile, me??  I thought I'd be doing them a favour.

[Gary]

Hostile, me??  I thought I'd be doing them a favour.

you would do them more of a favour by letting them go into liquidation Rik

[cavillas]

Let's go mad, Alf, and make it a fiver.

Surely, that's overvaluing the company?

[Rik]

you would do them more of a favour by letting them go into liquidation Rik

Willingly.

[Rik]

Surely, that's overvaluing the company?

I know, it's May 1 and I was feeling rash.

[Glenn]

It's like 3 the mobile phone company, they are yet to make a profit,  but the parent company wrote off $10bn in setup costs. I think that they are close to making an operating profit, but that does not service the debt.

[Rik]

It seemed so easy when I was running my own business, Glenn. At the end of the year, I wanted to have earned more than I spent, and have made enough to cover the cost of existing and new equipment. Something seems to have changed in economics since then.