Dixons prepares to float Freeserve

UK high-street electronics retailer, Dixons has today confirmed it is considering floating its free Internet service provider (ISP), Freeserve.

In an announcement the company says it has recruited Credit Suisse, First Boston and Cazenove & Co. to look strategically at ways of increasing Freeserve's value to shareholders. All three firms are looking particularly at a public offering of a minority interest in the business.

Dixons refused to comment on the potential value of the investment, but reports in the press value Freeserve in the region of £2bn.

Freeserve revolutionised the UK's ISP industry and its success led to a flood of other free access providers from the likes of BT and even The Sun.

Freeserve, which launched in September last year, claims to have already netted over one million subscribers and has helped to push Dixons back into the FTSE 100.