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Following on from my previous post about Tiscali losing its last potential buyer BSkyB, they were given a lifeline by their lenders last week - JPMorgan agreed to put a hold on Tiscali’s €11 million (£10.1 million) debt repayments. In light of this, they apparently told their 1.7 million UK customers that broadband services would continue as normal.
If reviews I’ve read recently are anything to go by (here, here and here, for example), they’re certainly operating “as normal”. Broadband Genie covered this story - a couple of comments suggest Tiscali have made absolutely no effort to contact their customers!
Is the lifeline going to be enough to save Tiscali from going under? My thoughts are no, and I’d be surprised if they didn’t end up being subject to a fire sale of their assets. If you haven’t yet got an alternative in mind in case bad goes to worse, why not give PlusNet a look? They currently have some cracking deals on and are BT-owned so you know they won’t be going anywhere in a hurry! Go on! Give PlusNet a go!
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“Bankruptcy”, “administration”, “shares suspended” - three of a growing number of terms I hear almost every day.
Normally it’s about financial institutions, high street retailers or the construction industry. So you can imagine my surprise when I heard the words “Tiscali” and “shares suspended” in the same sentence this week!
Well, not a total surprise - they’ve been trying to sell off UK-based assets since early last year to help pay off their debts. However BSkyB, the last remaining potential buyer, pulled out of talks on Monday leaving Tiscali with a sore throat. £453m of debt, recent failure to meet debt repayments and two multi-million pound interest payments this week. All of this news results in a 40% drop in Tiscali’s share price and the suspension of their shares to prevent bankruptcy.
Ouch.
Tiscali own Pipex, Nildram, Freedom2Surf among a few other brands - if your Internet Service Provider is one of these it might be worth checking out a few alternatives just incase bad goes to worse. One of them is BT-owned PlusNet - their prices are really good, their service is brilliant (UK call centres, 24/7). Don’t just take my word for it - check them out for yourself :o)
Ever heard of black hat and/or white hat SEO? If not, I’ll give you a very brief introduction. SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the art of optimising your website to give it the best chance of ranking at the top of the likes of Google, Yahoo and MSN (Windows Live Search).
As with most things in life, there are right and wrong ways of performing SEO - the good ways are known as “white hat SEO” and the bad ways, “black hat SEO”. Paying for links to help your website’s link profile, for example, is one such bad way - sometimes you’ll be issued with a penalty such as the hefty one Google gave Go Compare last February.
It would appear that Danny Sullivan has given us a new hat to wear. Stop shouting the rainbow at your screen - it’s not a colour! The phrase “crap hat SEO” - yes crap - has been used by Danny:
“Search engines have ‘rules’ that they themselves knowingly allow others to break. Arguments erupt over the idea that any type of marketing is ‘manipulation.’ But at some point, enough is enough with some tactics. And today, I’m done. I’m calling bullshit on anyone who is link spamming or creating crappy nonsensical content sites.”
At Search Marketing Expo recently he went on to say “Just don’t be a ‘crap hat.’ Don’t do the crap stuff. Off-topic link drops, automated link insertions. It’s all just crap. Just say no to crap. And tell others to say no. Make it like racist jokes, don’t put up with it. Enough crappy MP3 sites, comment spamming, god knows what else. Just enough. Be leaders. Grow up and if it’s money you’re leaving on the table, leave it.”
So there you have it. New hat for the selection. White, black, or crap - you choose!
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