Namesco

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Namesco Limited
Type	Private
Founded	(1996) (as Names.co Internet Services Ltd)
Headquarters	Worcester, UK
Key people	Kevin Savage, Managing Director Jason Smith, Operations Director David Lees, Chairman
Industry	Internet
Products	Internet Services
Revenue	£14 Million
Employees	64 (Sept 2006)
Slogan	A World Apart
Website	http://www.names.co.uk

Namesco Ltd is an Internet domain name and hosting service founded in 1996 as a small Internet setup named "Names.co Internet Services Limited" originally based in North East England.

In 1997 another setup was founded by Kevin Savage, Jason Smith and John Sewell named Phase8.com "Webcall.com Limited" based in Worcester.

In December 2000 Namesco, following the dot com boom became a Public Limited Company and floated on the London Unlisted Securities Market. In December 2001 Namesco Internet Plc acquired Phase8.com "Webcall.com Limited" for the sum of £2,300,000.

Despite acquiring smaller web hosting companies and resellers along the way the "publicly quoted" Namesco struggled to be viable citing the increasingly competitive nature of the domain name and web hosting business, and the additional costs of maintaining listed status as the reasons for a lack of profitability.

Accordingly in January 2004 Namesco Internet PLC was the subject of a reverse takeover and its internet operations subject to a management buyout. The PLC "acquired" Larchland Limited for valuable mineral exploration rights and the business renamed as "Triple Plate Junction PLC."

Triple Plates accounts for 2004 reveal losses of GBP£84000, for the "Namesco" business prior to its disposal in January 2004. Indeed "Namesco" was hived down into a subsidiary and sold to "Womerah Limited." Womerah being the company connected to the outgoing board of directors, David Lees, Jason Smith and Kevin Savage.

Although Namesco had an annual turnover of over GBP£1.1M, Womerah acquired the subsidiary for a consideration of just GBP£253,343 of which only GBP£100,000 was required as a cash payment, to be made in two staged payments GBP£50,000.

As a result of this in September 2004, Womerah Limited was able to "double" the size of its Namesco internet business by acquiring a competitor, the local and profitable Malvern based "Simply.com Limited" from the Coulson family for GBP£2.15M. Simply.Com Limited managed 92,000 domain names. Womerah then expanded "Namesco Limited" into the broadband market by acquiring ADSL provider NDO.

David Lees remained as a Director of both "Namesco Limited" and "Triple Plate Junction PLC." "TPJ" changed its activities to become a gold mining and exploration company with substantial activities in Vietnam.