{"id":574176,"date":"2025-01-06T06:56:45","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T04:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=574176"},"modified":"2025-01-06T07:02:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T05:02:28","slug":"the-r1-billion-south-african-tech-company-that-died-without-a-whimper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wireless\/574176-the-r1-billion-south-african-tech-company-that-died-without-a-whimper.html","title":{"rendered":"The R1-billion South African tech company that died without a whimper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wi-Fi provider VAST Networks, once valued at over R1 billion, was unceremoniously shut down in 2019, and its assets liquidated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Established in 2014 as a joint venture between Dimension Data and Naspers, VAST Networks combined the Wi-Fi networks of Internet Solutions’ AlwaysOn and MWEB to form a comprehensive new Wi-Fi business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internet Solutions was part of Dimension Data, which owned 51% of the company, and MWEB was part of Naspers, which held a 49% stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VAST Networks was officially launched in November 2015 with the aim to deliver carrier-grade Wi-Fi in Southern Africa on an open-access basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its extensive indoor Wi-Fi coverage in hotels, shopping centres, and restaurants was seen as very valuable at a time when mobile data use was exploding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former IS CEO Saki Missaikos told MyBroadband years ago that Naspers was interested in buying AlwaysOn outright<\/a>, but they did not want to sell it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outcome of these talks was a joint venture with plans to expand VAST’s infrastructure to provide wholesale access to unlicensed spectrum for mobile operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Called LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U), VAST would make use of unlicensed spectrum, such as the 5GHz band, to improve data performance without requiring a user to log into a separate Wi-Fi network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naspers and Dimension Data pumped a lot of money into VAST after its launch, which allowed the Wi-Fi network operator to expand its network and launch a range of new services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its peak, VAST operated thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots in highly trafficked areas and offered a range of analytics services to shopping centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also started trialling Wi-Fi offloading with Vodacom<\/a> with the aim of offering mobile users faster and cheaper mobile data services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the surface, things looked good for VAST. However, the company was not profitable, and Naspers and Dimension Data grew tired of funding the loss-making enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Achilles heel for Wi-Fi networks in South Africa has always been the inability to effectively monetize their services, and VAST was no different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naspers and Dimension Data decided to sell VAST<\/a>, and in 2018, Investec went to market to attract potential buyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few prominent telecommunications players were interested in VAST\u2019s assets, notably Vodacom<\/a> and Link Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a deal could not be reached, and the directors of VAST Networks announced that the company would be shut down<\/a> on 25 October 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They said that despite considerable efforts, VAST continued to sustain losses, making continued investment unsustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNumerous options have been explored to ensure the continuation of its business, including further shareholder investment, partnerships, and the sale of VAST,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollowing an intensive 18-month sale process with interested parties, an agreement could not be concluded, and all alternate options have now been exhausted, hence the decision to wind up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without a whimper<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While VAST could not find a sustainable operating model, it still had valuable assets and a comprehensive client base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in the end, the liquidators scrapped it for parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online auctioneer Asset Auctions sold<\/a> what remained of VAST to the highest bidder between 12 October and 14 October 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 469 items on auction, several never received bids. Many that were sold went for the minimum starting bid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a handful of items were bid up from their starting price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the final hammer fell, the parts of VAST people still wanted had sold \u200e\u2009for R492,295.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With no buyers interested in VAST networks two years after it went into liquidation, it was scrapped for parts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":574177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1779,1691,20077,213,1643,90364,11285,36886],"class_list":["post-574176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wireless","tag-alwayson","tag-dimension-data","tag-internet-solutions-is","tag-mweb","tag-naspers","tag-ntt-data","tag-saki-missaikos","tag-vast-networks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":577190,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574176\/revisions\/577190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}