AAPT tells staff: Welcome to iiNet

AAPT chief executive Paul Broad has told staff of the company's consumer telecommunications business that they are soon to join iiNet.

UPDATE 12pm: iiNet has confirmed it would buy the consumer division of AAPT for about $60 million after coming out of a trading halt just before midday. See iTnews' full coverage.

The acquisition will see iiNet take on an additional 113,000 broadband subscribers and over 251,000 users of "other active services".

The Perth-based ISP announced the buy whilst in a trading halt and preparing for a second showdown against representatives of the film industry on Monday.

Yesterday, AAPT's parent company Telecom New Zealand sold down its stake in Australian corporate telco Macquarie Telecommunications.

The acquisition will make iiNet the clear number two behind Telstra for DSL customers.

At last count, iiNet had 531,000 DSL customers; AAPT had 113,000 in its consumer division. A combined 644,000 DSL customers would see iiNet overtake Optus (550,000).

The ISP only had $6.9 million cash at hand at the end of December 2009, but was reporting half-year revenues of $228 million.