It’s the merging of internet service providers: Afrihost has announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Cool Ideas. The deal was sealed this weekend, and will mean Afrihost essentially owns the smaller ISP.
Sounds like a Cool Idea?
While the acquisition has been approved, it’s still subject to a long line of bureaucratic regulatory approvals. If everything goes according to plan, however, Afrihost will hold a majority stake in Cool Ideas. The two plan to leverage their combined economies and audiences to scale their impact.
This doesn’t mean that Afrihost will absorb CI — the companies plan to hold separate brands as they did before — the only thing that’ll really change is the ownership structure. CI will hold the same management and employees for the immediate (and hopefully prolonged) future. We’ll also see the original CI shareholders (founders Andre Jooste and Paul Butschi) retain stakes in the business, according to MyBroadband.
While we don’t have details on the amount of cash that’ll ultimately exchange hands for this acquisition, one thing’s for sure: This will cement both brands as major players in the internet service industry in South Africa.