Open Telecommunications Ltd. is a defunct software company supplying the telecommunications industry. The company was founded by

Wayne Passlow Wayne may refer to: People with the given name and surname * Wayne (given name) * Wayne (surname) Geographical Places with name ''Wayne'' may take their name from a person with that surname; the most famous such person was Gen. "Mad" Antho ...

as a private company in

North Sydney North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the s ...

, Australia. Open Telecommunications provides products and services that collectively deliver a new generation of telecommunications network infrastructure. The Open Telecommunications infrastructure includes switching products, content and services, and management systems. At its peak, Open Tel (AX:OTT) claimed to serve the five continents with long list of clients including

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

and

LG Electronics LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational major appliance and consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG, LG Corporation, the fourth ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, telcos in The

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, United States, and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. Local customers include:

Optus Singtel Optus Pty Limited is an Australian Telecommunications in Australia, telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, a suburb in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiar ...

One.Tel One.Tel was a group of Australian-based telecommunications companies, principally the publicly-listed One.Tel Limited (ACN 068 193 153), established in 1995 soon after deregulation of the Australian telecommunications industry, most of which are ...

and

COMindico COMindico was an Australian IP telecommunications carrier. It started as IPTel in 2000 by Wayne Passlow with the backing of AGL, AMP, JPMorganChase, James Packer (CPH) and Lachlan Murdoch (Queensland Press). The COMindico name came from the La ...

(also founded by

). The company also enjoyed financial and technological backing from the networking giant

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...

. The junior telco shared the same powerful backers as the defunct One.Tel:

James Packer James Douglas Packer (born 8 September 1967) is an Australian billionaire businessman and investor. Packer is the son of Kerry Packer, a media mogul, and his wife, Roslyn Packer. He is the grandson of Frank Packer. He inherited control of th ...

and

Lachlan Murdoch Lachlan Keith Murdoch (; born 8 September 1971) is a British and Australian businessman and mass media heir. He is the son of the media Business magnate, tycoon Rupert Murdoch. He is the executive chairman of Nova Entertainment, chairman of N ...

. It also suffered the same fate as One.Tel. However, unlike One.Tel, The telco downfall is more due to unfavourable market rather than mismanagement. The painful crash start in 2000 before finally going into voluntary administration in April 2002, when its shares were trading at five cents.

A chronological outline of the Open Tel story

The Beginning

The company started in late 1995 with a few software developers from

Telstra Telstra Group Limited is an Australian telecommunications company that builds and operates telecommunications networks and markets related products and services. It is a member of the S&P/ASX 20 stock index, and is Australia's largest telecomm ...

and

. The Managing Director, Wayne Passlow was a successful Sales Manager for

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

Expansion

In August 1999, the company acquired the business of Siemens Research, the Australian network management business unit of

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

located in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. In March 2000, Open Telecommunications completed the acquisition of wireless telecommunications software developer, Indian Pacific Communications.

Listing in ASX

Open Telecommunications Ltd was listed in ASX with the highest first day price increase in history. The Share price went up more than four folds the IPO price. The securities were suspended from the ASX on 30 April 2002 and reinstated 3 February 2004. The company was delisted in 2006.

Acquisition by Macquarie Bank

On 30 March 2005, it was announced that founder Wayne Passlow would partner with

Macquarie Bank Macquarie Group Limited (), more commonly known as Macquarie Bank, is an Australian multinational investment banking and financial services group headquartered in Sydney and listed on the ASX (). Macquarie's investment banking division is Au ...

to privatise the company at an estimated cost of $7 million. In April it was revealed that the sale could be blocked by the company's then-largest shareholder, Gordon Martin, though the acquisition would ultimately succeed. In August, the company announced that Passlow would stand down as CEO. In May 2006, Macquarie announced it had rebranded the company as S2Net.

References

External links

''Media coverage'' * * ''Research Paper'' *{{cite web , title=Archive Research , publisher= Paul Budde , date=4 April 2002, url=http://www.budde.com.au/Reports%5CContents/Open-Telecommunications-Limited-2010.HTML Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Telecommunications companies established in 1995 Defunct telecommunications companies of Australia