Internode managing director, Simon Hackett, has rejected suggestions that there are running internal battles occuring at the Adelaide-based ISP, reassuring customers he remains “highly, highly involved” at the company.
His comments follow a piece in <i>The Australian</i> this week, which stated: “Mr Hackett has stepped back from the company's daily operations but is believed to be reluctant to cede control”.
The report lead some on the Whirlpool user forum — and Hackett himself — to speculate on its meaning, with some taking it as an implication of fights for control within the provider which Hackett founded following employment at research provider AARNet.
“I don't know where that comment came from – not from me,” Hackett said on the forum. “And the implicit boardroom battle... isn't happening either. Its got me scratching my head.
“Amusing – but its not actually about anything factual as far as I can figure out. Maybe its just some form of wishful thinking about consolidation.”
Hackett also rejected another possible interpretation of the sentence, noting the idea that he may be holding out from selling the provider to a larger player in the Australian market.
“We're a private company, so we don't need to reassure our public shareholders of anything in this context, because we don't have any,” he said.
Discussions over Internode’s place in the local market have continued to circulate since iiNet managing director, Michael Malone, labelled the smaller provider a “point five” in the market. Malone has since said he meant no harm with the remark while Hackett said he had taken no offence.
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