IIN have taken over two great companies, TransACT and Internode and as part of the Internode purchase they have given Simon Hacket a bigger stake in IIN than what TPM currently have (although not by much).
TPM are in prime position for a takeover and any announcements showing TPM increasing their holdings in IIN will no doubt be seen by many as a possible precursor to a takeover.
I would expect IIN to be looking at a few more smaller and popular ISPs to absorb as well to add to their collective. TransACT basically has fibre to the home already in place in Canberra making the transition to NBN much easier and cheaper.
The NBN will be a real game changer as it rolls out and only those companies that offer cheap connections or give great service are going to survive. In my mind only TPM or IIN can offer these two things so a marriage between the two might be inevitable to compete with Telstra.
This reminds me a lot of the days when dial up internet companies were being soaked up into the big players when ADSL was being rolled out. There were not many ADSL players left for a long time. Now the same will probably happen to the smaller ADSL players as the NBN is really only viable for the big players initially.
I hold both TPM and IIN
IIN Price at posting:
$3.01 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
