Commander Australia

Commander Australia is an Australian telecommunications company previously a division of the Telstra Corporation. It is owned by the M2 Group which also owns Iprimus, People Telecom, Dodo and several other telecommunications companies. At one point in its history it boasted revenues of over A$1 billion. In 2006 Commander embarked on an ambitious Franchising scheme, setting up a pilot “Commander Center” franchise in Tasmania. Over 30 “Commander Centre” franchises were sold Australia-wide until toward the end of 2007 when the franchise model started showing some viability issues. On Friday, 8 August 2008, the company announced to its investors and 1300 staff that it was placed under administrative receivership, owing $360 million to Westpac, Commonwealth and ANZ.[1]

Share price

Since May 2007 where commanders share price was sitting at $2.45 on the ASX, its share price had fallen to 8.2c at the time it went into administration. On 1 October 2007 the company was put into suspension from official quotation by the ASX due to Commanders failure to lodge reports to the ASX by the deadline. This effectively froze the value at 53c per share. On 18 October 2007 the company reinstated official quotation, within hours the share price halved.

On 30 January 2008 commander made 600 staff redundant.[2] This increased its share price by 10%. However this share price was short lived, with the price back down to 19c within hours.

The share price did not recover and at time the company went into administration the share price was sitting at 8.2c[3]

Sale to M2 Telecommunications

In June 2009, M2 Telecommunications executed an Asset Sale Deed to acquire the Small & Medium Business assets and associated intellectual property of Commander.[4][5] M2 paid $19million for the acquisition[6]

The Commander Centre Franchise chain was converted into a Dealer channel, with each individual Franchisee being required to sign a Deed of Release without compensation from Commander or its Administrators. The “Commander Centre” tradename was amongst the assets acquired by M2, who maintained the Commander Centre presence around Australia.

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ Boyd, Tony (11 August 2008). "Banks hang up on Commander". The Business Speculator. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
  2. ↑ "Commander cuts 600 staff in business review". ARN. 30 January 2008.
  3. ↑ CDR Company Announcements, ASX
  4. ↑ Woodhead, Ben (2009-06-03). "M2 buys Commander SMB unit in 'strategic coup'". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  5. ↑ "M2 Company Announcements". ASX. 2009-06-16.
  6. ↑ "M2 Company Announcements". ARN. 2009-06-02.