Commander Australia

Commander Australia is an Australian telecommunications company formed from a spin-off of Telstra Corporation. 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 the Westpac, Commonwealth and ANZ. banks.^[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 purchased the Small & Medium Business division of Commander^[4].^[5]. M2 paid $19million for the acquisition^[6]

M2 Telecommunications Group Ltd (“M2”) is Australia’s largest network independent provider of the full suite of fixed line, mobile and data telecommunications services. M2 was established in 1999 and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (“ASX”, ASX code MTU) in 2004. Company headquarters are in Melbourne, with offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Sydney, Perth and Wollongong.

M2 is the parent company of Commander, People Telecom, M2 Telecom, M2 Wholesale, Southern Cross Telco, Simply Mobiles and GreenMobiles.

External links

• Company Website

Notes

1. ^ Boyd, Tony (11 August 2008). "Banks hang up on Commander". The Business Speculator. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Banks-hang-up-on-Commander-HDRCB?OpenDocument. Retrieved 2008-08-11. 
2. ^ "Commander cuts 600 staff in business review". ARN. 30 January 2008. http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;617195624. 
3. ^ CDR Company Announcements, ASX, http://www.asx.com.au/asx/statistics/announcementSearch.do?method=searchByCode&issuerCode=cdr&timeFrameSearchType=Y&year=2008 
4. ^ Woodhead, Ben (2009.06.03). "M2 buys Commander SMB unit in 'strategic coup'". The Australian Financial Review. http://afr.com/home/login.aspx?EDP://20090603000031208749&section=industry-itt. Retrieved 2009-06-09. 
5. ^ "M2 Company Announcements". ASX. 2009.06.16. http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20090616/pdf/31j2nvdnygtd5g.pdf. 
6. ^ "M2 Company Announcements". ARN. 2009.06.02. http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/305577/commander_smb_operations_sold/.