Arena mulls suit against partner Tel-Energo
The financially shaky Internet portal Arena will decide this week whether it will sue telecom company Tel-Energo, its partner in their jointly owned Internet service provider (ISP) E-Connections, Tomasz Mocarski, Arena's director of public relations, said last week.
Arena (http://www.arena.pl) blames Tel-Energo for ruining its initial public offering of shares last month. The telecom company dashed the portal's plans to raise some zl. 100 million ($250,000) when it declared during the eleventh hour of the subscription period that it wanted to renegotiate the terms of its involvement in E-Connections. Arena's business model is based on both its portal operations and the E-Connections ISP service, which has not yet been launched.
"From our side, all these decisions are in the hands of Arena, and we are waiting for Arena now," said Robert Terentiew, Tel-Energo's spokesman. He added that Tel-Energo would restart talks if Arena agreed.
Arena, which owns 51% of E-Connections, has been considering legal action to recover lost investment from Tel-Energo after negotiations between the two firms collapsed two weeks ago. Mocarski said he could not say the amount Arena would seek from Tel-Energo since the firm's attorney was working on the matter, but added that the firm would publicly issue details this week. Mocarski also said that Arena was working on its strategy and thinking about ISP service "in a different shape," but declined to provide details.
