Indigo buyer sees Internet potential

MR SHAY Moran, the man who bought the Internet service provider Indigo, has extensive interests in the leisure industry with centres in Dublin, Bray and Cork.

In 1990 he and his partner Mr Frank Anderson sold the electronic security equipment company, Itec, to a US company for £5.6 million.

At the time the company had 130 employees and was, he said, Ireland's largest indigenous electronics manufacturing company. It had offices in England, France and Holland.

Mr Moran (48) is involved with Leisureplex Holdings, a with centres in Tallaght, Coolock and Stillorgan in Dublin, and in Cork. The company acquired the Stillorgan Bowling centre two weeks ago.

Mr Moran is also the owner of Dawsons Amusements, a well known landmark on the seafront in Bray, Co Wicklow. He is an active member of the Bray tourism task force and was recently given an award by the Bray Chamber of Commerce for work he has done on attracting tourists to the town.

He is also the owner of Watson and Jameson, a small company in Baldoyle, Dublin, which cuts sails and is an agent for sea safety products.

Asked what had attracted him to Indigo, Mr Moran said: "I come from an engineering manufacturing background and the alarms industry, which I was in for 20 years, was an emerging industry when I got into it, just like the Internet is now. I have experience of getting into an emerging industry."

While the Internet was changing faster than the electronic alarms industry was 20 Years ago, the two had similar characteristics, he said.

Indigo was "an opportunity to get into an industry that is growing exponentially". He said the development of the business needs to be more "focused".

Mr Moran was approached two weeks ago by someone who had worked in Itec and now works with Indigo.

"I was asked would I be interested in running it and I said I would."

The company, he said, had about 53 employees and 13,000 to 14,000 subscribers. This is fewer than had previously been reported. He would not say how much he paid for the company.

Mr Moran takes over as chief executive of Indigo. He is a business graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and lives in Dalkey.

Indigo was established by the Moyna family in mid-1995. The Monaghan family and relatives in the US, are understood to have invested over £1 million in developing the company.

They sold the company because of "destructive and unfounded rumours" which had "dogged the company and the Moyna family" concerning alleged IRA links.

These rum ours were having a negative impact on the growth of the company and they decided it would not be able to grow if they remained involved.

Mr Moran said he was not interested in rumours and had not heard of the Moyna family until the suggestion was made to him that he buy Indigo. "I looked at the company and that was all that interested me. I wasn't interested in why it was being sold once it had nothing to do with the company.