Starman was an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

and

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...

company founded in 1992 and located in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

. Since December 2016, Starman Estonia is wholly owned by

Elisa The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay uses a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presen ...

. Starman was the largest cable television company in

and in the

Baltic countries The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone ...

History

Starman was founded in 1992 by Peeter Kern and Indrek Kuivallik. Peeter Kern served as the company's CEO until his unexpected death in 2014. In 2013, the Swedish investment company East Capital Explorer bought 51% of Starman's shares from the company's founders. In 2015 Starman bought the Lithuanian telecommunications company Cgates, with funds from the majority shareholder East Capital Explorer, but the Lithuanian branch was again separated in a later acquisition. In March 2016, East Capital Explorer intended to sell its 63% share to American investment firm Providence Equity Partners for €81 million, but Starman's minority shareholder Polaris Invest (owned by founder Indrek Kuivallik) used their pre-emptive rights to make the purchase instead. In December 2016, Starman Estonia was wholly acquired by Finnish telecommunications company

for €151 million; this deal did not include the Lithuanian branch.

References

External links

* Mass media companies of Estonia 1992 establishments in Estonia 2010s disestablishments in Estonia Mass media companies established in 1992 Mass media companies disestablished in 2018 Telecommunications companies established in 1992 Telecommunications companies disestablished in 2018 Telecommunications companies of Estonia 2016 mergers and acquisitions {{Europe-company-stub