Nice rises Friday and today,after being tipped up by Money Week magazine ,with first half sales up 86%,and a cheaper Broadband bundle than Car Phone warehouse,a forward p/e of 15.4 and a likely takeover target seems the one to be on in a guarateed consolidating sector.

This looks kind of interesting, any thought anyone?

From The Sunday TimesMarch 25, 2007

Web intrigue in spy case
Dominic Prince

PIPEX, the 300m quoted internet provider that put itself up for sale last week, has become embroiled in a legal action by arch rival Rackspace, a US-owned London web-hosting business, alleging industrial espionage.

The case centres on former Rackspace managing director Dominic Monkhouse, 40, who left the company last July to head Web Fusion, the web-hosting division of Pipex.

Pipex has suspended him and Rackspace has sacked one of its women employees, with whom Monkhouse is alleged to have had a relationship. He has given court undertakings not to disclose any information before a court hearing.

The woman at Rackspace was accused of passing information to Monkhouse after he joined Pipex. That material concerned tenders, bids, and product pricing, according to insiders.

Monkhouse is a well-known figure and has lectured, spoken at conferences and written articles about the business. Former colleagues expressed surprise at the allegations against him. One said: Youll find that he is spending rather a lot of time skiing at the moment and not much time at his desk.

A Rackspace spokesman said: Rackspace commenced legal proceedings to protect its confidential information with the result that Dominic Monkhouse has given undertakings to the court not to use or disclose any such information pending the trial of this action. The proceedings are continuing.

Rackspace had taken action against Pipex but Rackspaces lawyers, Stevens & Bolton, said: The proceedings against Pipex have been settled. They refused to say on what terms the settlement with Pipex was made.

A spokesman for Pipex said: Dominic Monkhouse is in discussions with his former employer. All information regarding any issues arising from this are subject to restrictions under disclosure. At this time Pipex is not party to the discussions and has no involvement in the issue. As such, we cannot make any comments on the validity of any claims in the public domain.

Rackspace is by far the smaller of the two companies but is growing at a ferocious rate. In the last set of filed accounts it increased its turnover by more than 90% to 16.1m and made after-tax profits of 2.1m. The number of employees has shot up from only four when Monkhouse joined, to more than 100 when he left.

It will be a relief to Pipex boss Peter Dubens and shareholders that Pipex is no longer involved in litigation. Pipex put itself up for sale, with UBS advising on bids, after interest from Richard Bransons Virgin Media Group, formerly NTL.

Last night Monkhouse could not be reached for comment.

that Pipex is no longer involved in litigation is all we need to know.



http://thehermesproject.blogspot.com/2007/03/bt-gets-approval-to-acquire-pipex.html

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investing-and-markets/article.html?in_article_id=418750&in_page_id=3

i am sure much, though not all, will be revealed tomorrow .... my own suspicions are that there could be an extended fight for PXC presenting investors with the enjoyable conundrum as to when to bank profits

No news, is this normal!

it's marginally disconcerting for sure ..... anyway, i have still banked on a positive result and have bought again this morning

Still No News - Whats happening

I found a snippet on thisismoney website dated 25th but apart from that nowt.

have a look at Brightview (BRV) next one to be taken out after pipex ????
suggested value is 300 per broadband subsciber does this sound about right ???

Disclosure not needed for between 3/5 days. Plenty of time to relieve pi's of their shares.

Lots of Selling

it will be on the basis that delayed news is often not good ..... with E&P companies it is invariably bad ...... in this instance, i do not think it actually anything untoward, though it would be "good manners" for PXC to make some sort of statement, even if it is only that the various bids are being evaluated or similar

"my man" in the market suggests that though the bids may be with PXC, they may not release anything for up to a couple of weeks .... how valid a view that is, i have no way of evaluating

Must be some news out there or rumours?

Lehman Bros no longer have an interest, they wouldn't have sold if the prospect of a higher price (a bid ) were imminent, would they?
2517

Big sales in morning & big purchases in afternoon - Dont know what to think


818,750 16.38p 5,000,000 11:06 Unknown X
165,399 16.25p 1,017,842 08:11 Sell AT
165,000 16.50p 1,000,000 12:11 Buy AT
165,000 16.50p 1,000,000 12:11 Buy AT
136,602 16.50p 827,892 12:11 Buy AT
41,250 16.50p 250,000 12:11 Buy AT
40,625 16.25p 250,000 08:11 Sell AT
40,625 16.25p 250,000 08:11 Sell AT
39,986 16.50p 242,372 12:04 Buy O
36,648 16.50p 222,108 12:11 Buy AT
33,000 16.50p 200,000 12:11 Buy AT
32,860 16.43p 200,000 09:47 Buy O

not if they made a good profit and want to move on to something else but ubs are still in there as a big holder.

i am very happy to stay put though distinctly overweight ..... we know bids have been tabled, and sooner or later (latest 10 days?) all will be revealed ..... i still think this will leave the WiMax and another piece (forget which) to sell off

Just had a look at Plusnet (PNT) which got to 207 without any auction

hlyeo98 - 18 Jul 2006 19:26

If there is one thing this game teaches, it's patience!

Seem's tobe a lot of people getting cold feet!!!