Will Freeserve Fall in the Battle of Wanadoo?
By internetnews.com Staff November 22, 2000 French Internet service provider Wanadoo admitted Wednesday it has considered snapping up British rival Freeserve Plc. Published reports said the deal would establish Wanadoo as one of Europe’s top three ISPs. Freeserve, 80 percent of which is owned by UK retailer Dixons, wouldn’t confirm the deal but did say it was in talks with a company about a purchase. But any thing can happen between now and when the dealers come to the table: France Telecom-owned Wanadoo said Freeserve was just one of the firms it was peeping on. Wanadoo, which had talked to French ISP LibertySurf about a potential merger, would benefit from a more than 100 percent increase of subscribers should it swing the Freeserve deal. Freeserve claims 2 million clients to Wanadoo’s 1.8 million. Freeserve could use a partner, some say. The firm wants to make a strong push into wireless Internet, broadband Internet and instant messaging, which means the outfit would need some heft
