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news.com.au
20jun00

10.45am (AEST) AUSTAR United Communications today announced an off-
market takeover of eisa Ltd.

Austar's wholly owned subsidiary Austar United Broadband Py Ltd will
pay 20 cents per eisa ordinary share, valuing the total ordinary shares
at $24.4 million.
"We have a solid and valuable ISP business which will fit nicely with
Austar," eisa managing director Damien Brady said in a statement.

"eisa's customers, particularly those in regional Australia, will
shortly see the benefits of being part of Australia's premier pay
television provider."

eisa said its board has evaluated Austar's offer and recommends
shareholders accept it, in the absence of a higher offer.

eisa director said they intend to accept the offer in respect of their
own shares.

Austar said also that it would also provide a $7.5 million short term
loan facility to eisa to fund it working capital requirements.

The loan will be secured by a fixed and floating charge over eisa's
assets. A committee of members from Austar and eisa has been set up to
review eisa's operations during the term of the loan.

The loan will be repayable, at Austar's discretion, in cash or by
requiring eisa to compete a business sale option agreement.

Under the agreement, eisa has granted Austar an option to acquire the
eisa businesses in Cairns, Darwin and Canberra.

eisa acting chairman Evan Rees said the offer from Austar will provide
security for eisa's customers, suppliers and employees and ensure the
continued service of its 85,000 active users.

At the same time, Austar said that if eisa managed to recover any or
all of a $20 million deposit forfeited to UUNET, when its planned
purchase of OzEmail's Internet business fell through, Austar would
increase its offer.

The offer would be increased by an amount which represents the tax
effected net amount recovered from UUNET on a per share basis, Austar
said.

"This will enable eisa shareholders who accept Austar's offer to
benefit from the potential price increase," it said.

"Austar believes that its offer is attractive and represents fair value
for eisa shares," said Austar chief executive John Porter.

"This transaction also make tremendous sense for Austar.

"We are in the process of building a significant Internet business and
eisa's subscriber base of around 85,000 subscribers gives us a kick
start into that sector," he said.

The majority of eisa's subscriber base is in regional Australia where
Austar is already marketing its austarnet dial-up service and the
chello broadband service.

"International experience shows that 100 per cent of broadband
subscribers start out as dial up users," said Mr Porter.

"The acquisition will give us an instant base of users to whom we can
market our premium service, chello."

eisa has 48 points of presence, 27 of which are in Austar regional
markets.


In article <394d9be7$0$17019$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au>,
  "Rod Speed" <rod_speed@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Carla <carla_l@my-deja.com> wrote in message
> news:8ijvcl$ok9$1@nnrp1.deja.com...
>
> > Eisa is the outfit that tried to buy Ozemail isn't it?
>
> It is indeed and they show every sign of going down
> the tubes very spectacularly indeed because of that.
>
> The head fool has one hell of a history, his other major local
operation,
> Edge, has been placed in the hands of the receivers both here and in
> the US, with everyone sacked. The only hope for EISA now is that
> someone will think they are worth buying. They'd have to be stupid.
>
> 'Johnston' Wang has already done a Skase, skipped the country.
>
>


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