BT has bought online electronics retailer Dabs.com in a bid to strengthen its retail sales. The exact price has not been disclosed but is thought to be in the region of £30m.
Bolton-based Dabs has around a million consumer and business customers across the UK, as well as a small operation in France. The company turned over £180m last year.
"Dabs is a dotcom success story and one of the best companies in its field," said Ian Livingston, chief executive at BT Retail.
"This purchase strengthens our online IT and digital products sales and
service presence for small and medium sized businesses as well as for consumer
customers."
Dabs began as Dabs Press, a publisher of technology books. The company's name
came from its two founders, David Atherton and Bruce Smith.
"We are delighted with this development and confident that this will prove to be rewarding to our business partners and customers," said Jonathan Wall, marketing director at Dabs.com.
"The combination of our expertise in online retailing, together with BT's brand and product and service heritage, offers tremendous opportunities."
The buyout will not affect the range of products Dabs offers, but BT's own retail offerings will be added to the site.
Do you agree?
Does that sound like BT?
As a regular dabs customer, I've got used to a wide choice of suppliers, competitive prices, fast delivery, a returns system that works when you need it, and a straightforward web site. So . . . does that sound like BT to you?
Posted by Bernadette Lugner, 04 May 2006
2+2 = 3 or 5?
BT Group has for years owned some well known and succesful Companies that continue to operate under their own names.
BT has had several attemprts but has never been successful in breaking into this market under its own name.
If BT dumps the DABS brand (a pioneer that nowadays appears worthy and reliable but dull and often beaten on price)and replace it with the BT Brand (considered by many to be a slow well meaning reliable old vegetarian dinosaur who carniverous competitors hate simply becasue it broke into a run after privatisation - despite the uphill slope of an uneven regulatory playing field - and after 20 years still hasn't been coaught by it's many competitors)then I expect the investment will prove to be a costly failure.
Both DABS and BT will bring to the party the best of their considerable expertise in products, business systems and telecommunications bit their wise owls need some young bucks to come up with a bucketload of fresh ideas to make DABS sparkle again.
Posted by David Donaldson, 04 May 2006
Phone Line?
You would have thought seen as BT are the UK's largest phone provider that Dabs would be able to invest in someone telephones?
....maybe not!
They STILL email each department and wait for a responce. Its stupid!
Posted by Matt Bodell, 17 May 2008