Melbourne IT mulls offloading business units offshore
Hosting provider Melbourne IT is keen for large offshore companies to buy up some of its business units after disappointing trading results.
As a result of a strategic review, the company is now seeking "ownership alternatives for its current portfolio of businesses."
A number of Melbourne IT's business units have experienced setbacks due to delayed projects. New opportunities that were tipped to materialise in the latter half of this year are now being pushed back to 2013. Its SMB eBusiness Solutions segment is suffering from pricing pressures from aggressive competitors, and while Melbourne IT's enterprise services division is faring better, it has taken a blow from delayed projects as a result of Queensland government budget cuts.
Melbourne IT's Digital Brand Services and ForTheRecord division were also hit by government spending reductions.
The Melbourne IT board is now keen to "hold further discussions with a number of parties, primarily large offshore organisations [that] have previously indicated interest in potentially acquiring one or more divisions of the company," according to an announcement on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
The company believes that this will be beneficial to both shareholders and staff at Melbourne IT.
In August, AAPT servers hosted by Melbourne IT were hacked by Anonymous, and customer data was lost. The Privacy Commissioner committed to investigating the security breach to determine whether AAPT and Melbourne IT adhere to practices consistent with the Privacy Act.
At the time, the hosting provider maintained that it had not lost a single customer due to the incident.
Melbourne IT could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.