Dabs.com Snapped Up By BT

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It has been known widely known that David Atherton, dabs.com founder and buddy of mine from my CRN days, has been looking to part with his creation. British Telecom, on the other hand, has long made efforts to increase its online retail presence as it continues to diversify away from voice calls. Buyer/seller, ying/yang, Pitt/Jolie, we’ve got a deal.

Financial details on the takeover which sees Dabs.com become a wholly owned subsidiary of BT have not been disclosed, but industry title The Register is claiming it is worth in the region of £30m. In an official statement BT said Dabs employs in excess of 200 people and was receiving about 75,000 orders per month at the time of sale, stocking 15,000 products.

“Dabs is a dotcom success story and one of the best companies in its field,” said Ian Livingston, chief exec at BT Retail. “Dabs.com’s outstanding expertise will boost BT’s online power to sell innovative, value for money, communication and converged IT products and offer great service to a wide range of customers.”

Naturally, Dabs.com was quick to speak out too with Jonathan Wall, marketing director at the company, saying “This is a very exciting time. We are delighted with this development and we’re confident that this will prove to be rewarding to both our business partners and our customers. The combination of our expertise in online retailing together with BT’s brand and product and service heritage offers tremendous opportunities.”

In the year ended March 31, 2005 Dabs.com had revenues of £180m and gross assets valued at £42m. Trading will continue as normal and it looks to be a winner for all parties concerned.

Links:
BT.com
Dabs.com