In this February 2007 Gleaner photo, president of Call The Planet Limited, John Eitel, chats with Florence Darby, managing director of Telstar Cable Copmpany. The two companies are business partners. - File
Call the Planet (CTP), the small Canadian-based internet phone venture that entered the Jamaican market in 2003 is being downsized and offered for sale, president and CEO, John Eitel, has confirmed to the Financial Gleaner.
The company says since inception it has invested just over US$5 million, around J$440 million, here and a total of about US$12 million in its international operation.
The group of investors, who bankrolled the business as a venture capital undertaking from pooled funds, is believed to have taken a battering from the fallout in the international investment market, particularly the collapse of the investment bank, Lehman Bothers, last year.
Eitel says CTP will continue to provide its full range of services to its fewer than 1,000 clients, including businesses and residential customers in Jamaica, until it is able to hand over the business to the successful buyer.
"We are looking for a buyer who will continue the operation and maintain for our clients the top quality, reliable and cost effective service CTP came to be known for in the Jamaican marketplace," said Eitel.
Talks were advanced, he said, with one potential purchaser, but a deal has not yet been clinched.
"We are talking to both local and overseas parties who are interested in the business," said Eitel, adding that the voice over internet protocol (VOIP) operation still has a future as a going concern in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
At the same time, the Canadian investor says he is not walking away from the market, but will be exploring other less capital intensive investment alternatives. His partners in CTP are, however, pulling from here and the Caribbean because of their financial problems.
"The investors have had some challenges and are redirecting their attention in terms of investment holdings. The cash that is needed to further penetrate the Jamaican market and build out the product globally will not be available from them" Eitel said.
While declining to disclose the asking price for the business, Eitel, who is the second largest shareholder with a 25 per cent stake in CTP, said the value of the business has to be viewed in terms of how any eventual buyer plans to utilise its assets.
"It would depend on whether it is acquired as say, a niche VOIP service provider, the technology department of a large existing business or as a value-added platform for a mobile telecoms provider."
Call the Planet operates in Canada, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas and has its technical facilities in the internet hub of Las Vegas in the United States. The entity's local staff has been trimmed from 20 to 15 with the more drastic reductions at all other locations including its corporate headquarters in Canada.
"We are down to a core technical staff of about 10 outside of Jamaica," according to Eitel.
CTP's Jamaica business strategy revolved around signing up local cable television operators to retail the service as a value-added appendage to their cable offering, utilising their wired network to connect households for around US $25 per month.
CTP subscribers around the world talk to each other for free.
The CTP Jamaican client base is said to be just under 1,000 comprising businesses as well as residential customers, which the company is eager to preserve for the eventual purchaser.
Despite early interest among local cable operators, only the Kingston-based Telstar effectively partnered with CTP to grow its subscriber base.
When CTP was officially launched here in early 2007 Telstar, STARCOM, Santastic, Matrix Entertainment, Cornwall Communication, GePhoneJ2 Limited and Paymaster were listed among its local partners.
The low level of take-up by the cable operators and resulting slow build-up of clients, is not being listed as the major reason behind CTP's decision to offload the business.
huntley.medley@gleanerjm.com