i was wondering if anyone out there had any strong views? this company appears to be delivering and has just turned EBITA positive after a great trading statement last week. seems like upside to +200p once results are out.

any comments or thoughts would be appreciated.

me neither! few sneaky buyers lurking...watch out for momentum into next week....i bought more at 73...fancy them for a trade around the core holding.

I wonder if this could be some shorts closing as well? Wouldn't surprise me as we have drifted back to where it was in Nov last year. Good trade from 73 since you'll have made the spread back already. Watching closely to see if this carries on or is just a bounce. But still good to see anyway, opened a tin of Irn-Bru to celebrate!

75 bid

only ABN (ESY house broker!) on the offer now, on their own!

75-78!

Very decent rise today, any thoughts as to whats behind it though?

no, i think there are a few buyers suddenly around and maybe a friday rumour is doing the rounds. cable and wireless up as well but that is another kettle of fish...

cable and wireless have got the horn...possibly a bidder out there

Well if thats the case then it may get the sector moving. Whatevers moving ESY up I approve of! Makes it a better end to the week anyway.

indeed it does!

Just found this, may have something to do with todays rise here:

Dresdner Kleinwort reiterates buy Cable & Wireless (CW.L).

That was out alot earlier....I thing it is to do with France Tel govt placement out the way and now management is free to look at aquisitions. supposedly Wanadoo (owned by France Tel) is shopping for a broadband supplier. ESY is in the frame according to ABN.

time to flog my old bull story again. up 6p on no news with Ofcomm any day now. keep it on your screens buy!

rgds
PT

PT
do you mean your ESY story is a lot of bull (lol)

if you read my previous posts that was the exact message i was portraying with a slither of hope that it could finally be true!

No this is up on news in the Times that france telecom may be interested.

cheers fo that, just seen it. ABN said the same thing a couple of weeks ago. I wholeheartily agree. C&W comes with baggage on top of baggage. ESY is a clean, cheap decent footprint in the UK and Europe broadband mkt.

bring on Ofcomm and that will clear the way (with Wanadoo doing the bidding - 100% owned by france tel).

I'd be surprised if the foothold that ESY have got within the BT exchanges is large enough to be of interest to France Telecom.

would you now...the rationale is the build out potential and the fact that already have the systems and infastructure in place to roll out to the rest of the country.

the trigger will be the "landgrab" by guys like Wanadoo (aka France Tel) after the Ofcomm announcement.

ESY is the ONLY company outside BT to have a footprint (which C&W is now building and pushing through Bulldog). Also the 10 billion BT is spending on a 21CN, ESY has ALREADY put one in.

You can't expect ESY to be all encompassing yet but it is the ONLY contender to BT and managed to force BT to lower its wholesale charges to their ISP clients by 42% after ESY was undercutting them by 30% for 6 months. clearly the thorn in BT's side is having the desired effect.

I think if France Tel was not as entrenched in the UK with Wanadoo I would agree that it was just a spurious unsubstantialted rumour BUT there is a legitimate economic advantage and synergies to be gained.

Roll on Ofcomm and we shall see if the rumours carry on...i would not be surprised to see a bid emerge prior to the annoucement to try and snap up the company on the cheap....

rgds
PT

The problem is though, Proptrade, that ESY have had access to the BT exchanges for around 5 years or so now. In that time they've not really made that great an inroad, probably due to a combination of under capitalisation and the obstacles to local loop unbundling which have been laid down by BT all along the way.

BT operate an effective monopoly in everything but name.

You're now starting to see wholesale DSL charges fall and you have to seriously question the ability of the telco tiddlers to compete against BT who have had the infrastructure in place for many years. Sure, France Telecom could probably provide the funding to roll it out so much quicker, but would they really want to go down that avenue? You've only got to recall the Telewest, NTL and Atlantic Telecom fiascos of recent years to realise that, if they've got any sense, France Telecom will steer well clear.

Don't get me wrong. I think that ESY have an interesting business model which I would like to see work. I know people on UK Online who have no complaints whatsoever. Unfortunately, those people are on exchanges which have not yet undergone local loop unbundling (and there are no plans currently for unbundling), so ESY are having to pay BT wholesale and is having to make what few scraps it can.