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Tessellis S.p.A. (formerly Tiscali S.p.A.) is an Italian
telecommunications company A telephone company, also known as a telco, telephone service provider, or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider (CSP), more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunicat ...
founded in 1998 and based in
Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...
,
Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
, that provides
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
and
telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
services in Italy, and, previously had operations in other
European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...
nations through its acquisition of many smaller European
Internet Service Providers 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 privatel ...
(ISPs) in the late 1990s.


History

''Tiscali S.p.A.'' was created in January 1998 in
Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...
by
Renato Soru Renato Soru (born 6 August 1957) is an Italian politician and entrepreneur. He is the founder of the internet service company Tiscali, based in Cagliari. ''Forbes'' listed Soru as one of the world's richest people, with a net worth of over $4 bil ...
, following the deregulation of Italian
telephone system A telephone network is a telecommunications network that connects telephones, which allows telephone calls between two or more parties, as well as newer features such as fax and internet. The idea was revolutionized in the 1920s, as more and more ...
. The
company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...
owes its name to a Sardinian mountain at which remains of an ancient village were found. From March 1999 onward, Tiscali offered "Tiscali Free Net", a subscription-free
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
service Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a pu ...
where customers only had to pay for the time they were
online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed "on line" or ...
. This pushed other Italian
providers Providers is a Danish hip hop, R&B and pop song production team made up of Jeppe Federspiel and Rasmus Stabell.fixed Fixed may refer to: * ''Fixed'' (EP), EP by Nine Inch Nails * ''Fixed'', an upcoming 2D adult animated film directed by Genndy Tartakovsky * Fixed (typeface), a collection of monospace bitmap fonts that is distributed with the X Window System * ...
subscription fees, thus contributing to making the Internet accessible to the masses in Italy. On 30 December 2021, Tiscali S.p.A. and Linkem S.p.A. approved the project for the
merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
by
incorporation Incorporation may refer to: * Incorporation (business), the creation of a corporation * Incorporation of a place, creation of municipal corporation such as a city or county * Incorporation (academic), awarding a degree based on the student having ...
of Linkem Retail S.r.l. in Tiscali S.p.A. On 27 April 2022, the shareholders' meetings of Tiscali and Linkem approved the merger between the two companies. On 1 August 2022, the two companies completed the merger process: Tiscali S.p.A. integrated Linkem Retail S.r.l., with the consequent transfer of the branch to the
subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...
Tiscali Italia S.p.A., while Linkem S.p.A. became the
majority shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal owner ...
of Tiscali S.p.A. (58.60%). After announcing it in October 2022, on 19 January 2023 the name of the
parent company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
became ''Tessellis S.p.A.'', which will continue to operate under both the commercial brands Tiscali and Linkem


IPO

In October 1999 (during the
dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...
), the company went through an
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
(IPO) to be traded on the
Italian Stock Exchange Borsa Italiana, based in Milan, is the Italian stock exchange. It manages and organises domestic market, regulating procedures for admission and listing of companies and intermediaries and supervising disclosures for listed companies.italy24.ils ...
at a share price of 46 Euros. 3,098,000 shares were offered to investors of which 2,658,000 shares were created through a
capital increase A seasoned equity offering or secondary equity offering (SEO) or capital increase is a new equity issued by an already publicly traded company. Seasoned offerings may involve shares sold by existing shareholders (non-dilutive), new shares (dilutive) ...
and the rest were sold by Soru. Soru made 20,240,000 Euros on the IPO. In 2012, the price per share had plummeted to 0.04 Euros. Between 2001 and 2005, shares were also traded on the French Stock Exchange. It was delisted from Paris Stock Exchange at the end of December 2005.


Sales

Beginning in 2004, Tiscali sold off many of its regional sub-companies to native telecommunications operators in order to focus more on prime target areas. *On 16 August 2004, Tiscali sold its
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n branch, Tiscali Österreich GmbH, to Nextra Telecom GmbH. *On 20 August 2004, Tiscali sold its
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
n branch, Tiscali (Pty) Ltd, to MWEB Holdings (Pty) Ltd. *On 23 August 2004, Tiscali sold its Norwegian branch, Tiscali AS, to Telenor Telecom Solutions. *On 30 August 2004, Tiscali sold its
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
counterpart, Tiscali AB, to
Spray Network AB Spray Network AB is a Swedish Internet company that runs the web portal spray.se. Spray was founded in 1995, was bought by Lycos Europe, but was sold to Allers in 2006. spray.se has about 750 000 visitors per week. In 2004 Spray bought the Swedis ...
, then a subsidiary of Lycos. *On 16 September 2004, Tiscali sold its
Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...
counterpart, Tiscali AG, reaching an agreement with Smart Telecom. *On 19 October 2004, Tiscali sold its South African mobile telephone network, Tiscali Mobile, to Vodacom S.A. *On 29 November 2004, Tiscali sold its
Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...
subsidiary, Tiscali S.A., reaching an agreement with Alternet S.A. *On 29 November 2004, Tiscali sold its Belgian subsidiary, Tiscali N.V, reaching an agreement with Scarlet België. *On 1 February 2005, Tiscali sold its
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
company, Tiscali Denmark A/S, to Tele2. *On 5 May 2005, Tiscali sold the
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
ISP, Liberty Surf to Telecom Italia. *On 31 January 2007, Tiscali sold its
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
business to consumer activities to Freenet.de AG, at a sum of
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...
30 million. It later sold its business-to-business transactions on 5 February 2007 to Ecotel Communication AG, with future intentions to leave the German market altogether. *On 19 June 2007, Tiscali sold its Dutch branch, Tiscali BV, to Royal KPN N.V. *On 11 October 2006, Tiscali announced that it was to focus on the UK and
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
as its prime ISP targets, with plans to introduce new services to them including a mobile network operator and new IPTV products to the United Kingdom by its acquisition of HomeChoice. *On 31 December 2008, Tiscali shut down its IPTV service in Italy. * On 27 May 2009, Tiscali sold its International arm,
Tinet GTT Communications, Inc. (GTT), formerly Global Telecom and Technology, is a multinational telecommunications and internet service provider company with headquarters in McLean, Virginia, and incorporated in Delaware. GTT operates a Tier 1 IP ne ...
to BS Private Equity firm. *On 30 June 2009, Tiscali sold its UK subsidiary to
Carphone Warehouse The Carphone Warehouse Limited was a mobile phone retailer based in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014 the company became a subsidiary of Currys plc (previously named "Dixons Carphone"), which was formed by the merger of its former parent Ca ...
following regulatory approval from the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
. The service was rebranded as TalkTalk in January 2010. * By 16 February 2016, Tiscali completed its merger with
Aria In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
, an Italian
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a family of wireless broadband communication standards based on the IEEE 802.16 set of standards, which provide physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC) options. The WiMAX ...
provider.


Services

Each of Tiscali's regional companies offer many services, which may include
broadband In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
Internet access Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...
and
telephone services A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into el ...
. Between 2007 and 2008, Tiscali briefly operated an
IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, ...
service in
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
(available in the cities of
Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
,
Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...
,
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
,
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
,
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
,
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
,
Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...
,
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
,
Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
and
Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
). Its UK television service, Tiscali TV was acquired by TalkTalk in 2009. Tiscali's former carrier company,
Tiscali International Network GTT Communications, Inc. (GTT), formerly Global Telecom and Technology, is a multinational telecommunications and internet service provider company with headquarters in McLean, Virginia, and incorporated in Delaware. GTT operates a Tier 1 IP ne ...
, was a
pure-play A pure play company focuses solely on a particular product or activity. Investing in a pure play company can be considered as investing in a particular commodity or product of a company. Pure play firms either specialize in a specific niche, or hav ...
carrier business delivering wholesale services including Global IP Connectivity, MPLS lines,
Voice over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of speech, voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms In ...
and Network Monitoring. In May 2009, its IP/MPLS backbone counted 90
Points of Presence A point of presence (PoP) is an artificial demarcation point or network interface point between communicating entities. A common example is an ISP point of presence, the local access point that allows users to connect to the Internet with their ...
and extended over 17 European countries and across the United States and Hong Kong. Its Autonomous System (AS3257) was a core ASN in the global Internet routing table, as well as the largest IPv6 backbone outside Asia. The network was sold to the Italian private equity firm BS Private Equity SpA on 27 May 2009, and renamed Tinet. Tiscali ran similar Web portals for each of its countries, which include features such as
Webmail Webmail (or web-based email) is an email service that can be accessed using a standard web browser. It contrasts with email service accessible through a specialised email client software. Examples of webmail providers are 1&1 Ionos, AOL Mail, G ...
, reviews, news, videos, dating,
chat Chat or chats may refer to: Communication * Conversation, particularly casual * Online chat, text message communication over the Internet in real-time * Synchronous conferencing, a formal term for online chat * SMS chat, a form of text messagin ...
,
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
, TV guide,
streaming TV Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aer ...
channels and others. Tiscali published a self-branded
Web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...
of the same name which was distributed with its
dial-up Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...
Internet packages. The browser used the core of
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
's
Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...
browser to display web pages. Distribution of the software ended during Tiscali's corporate rebranding in 2004. Tiscali offered dial-up Internet access in
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
under service name ''Surfeu''. Tiscali Campus in Cagliari had 1,000 employees as of early 2013. The center includes a development division for Internet technologies. Researchers working there included Antonio Tuzzi (one of the developers of Apple's
macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
), Luca Manunza (inventor of the first
Webmail Webmail (or web-based email) is an email service that can be accessed using a standard web browser. It contrasts with email service accessible through a specialised email client software. Examples of webmail providers are 1&1 Ionos, AOL Mail, G ...
service), and Domenico Dato (developer of ''Arianna'', the first Italian search engine).


Financial and economic data

On 31 December 2020 it had 530 direct employees, and 5,199,124,915 common shares. Customers include about 673,000 households and companies. In 2021 shareholders of Tiscali included Renato Soru (6,08%) and Amsicora S.r.l. (16.65%).


See also

* Tiscali Italia *
Tiscali International Network GTT Communications, Inc. (GTT), formerly Global Telecom and Technology, is a multinational telecommunications and internet service provider company with headquarters in McLean, Virginia, and incorporated in Delaware. GTT operates a Tier 1 IP ne ...
* Tiscali Mobile * Tiscali TV * Tiscali UK


References


External links

* {{Authority control Companies based in Cagliari Telecommunications companies established in 1998 Internet service providers of Italy Italian brands Telecommunications companies of Italy