- Wanadoo
Wanadoo is the former name of the ISP division of
Orange SA , which is a subsidiary ofFrance Télécom . It operated in France, theUnited Kingdom , theNetherlands ,Spain ,Tunisia ,Algeria ,Morocco ,Senegal ,Mauritius ,Madagascar ,Lebanon &Jordan . It ceased to operate as a worldwide brand on 1 June 2006, when it was replaced by Orange.The origin of the name Wanadoo is subject to some controversy, as some maintain it came about in the late 1990s when many internet companies competed to choose 'Yahoo' sounding names. However it might be that the name Wanadoo first appeared in an internal project at France Télécom, much in line with a number of other such projects such as Intranoo, Tatoo, Netatoo and @noo.
Wanadoo was floated on the stock market on 18 July 2000. In
2000 , Wanadoo also took over the major British ISPFreeserve , which had previously been part of the Dixons Group (nowDSG International plc ). Following the buy-out, Freeserve maintained its own branding for a while before finally changing to the "Wanadoo" name on 28 April 2004. [ [http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/46d6968cb298af59873c5ebcb4030945/compdetails WebCHeck - Select and Access Company Information ] ]In the early 2000 Wanadoo expanded into the games industry by purchasing
Index+ . Wandoo integrated Index+ into its new games division,Wanadoo Edition . On September 30, 2003 [ [http://www.adventuregamers.com/newsitem.php?id=253 Microids takes over Wanadoo's games division] ] Wanadoo Edition was integrated intoMC2 France and from this deal Wanadoo also became a 12% shareholder ofMicroïds .Orange rebranding
Wanadoo changed to Orange on 1 June 2006 to simplify branding by
France Télécom : this merging of companies has created a single brand offering mobile telecommunications and internet services. This is an example of one type oftelecommunication convergence .Orange is currently the largest ISP in Europe (counting the subscribers of Telekomunikacja Polska) with over ten million subscribers, largely concentrated in France, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland.
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
