BT grabs dabs.com

BT is trying its hand at the e-tail business, announcing today that it has bought electronics website dabs.com.

The telco has acquired the company for an undisclosed sum in an effort to target SMEs and consumers typically purchasing home networking products, the company said.

Dabs.com, which has more than a million registered customers, will continue to operate as a standalone brand and no job losses among the e-tailer's 200 staff are expected as a result of the deal.

A BT spokesman told silicon.com that those questioning the value of the union are out of touch with the company's transition from an old school telco to a converged communications and networking company.

He said: "People who say [it's an odd move] haven't been following what's been happening at BT for the last couple of years. Phone lines are a very small part of our business. In the last few years, our networked IT services business... has seen phenomenal growth."

BT has been working on boosting income from its new wave business - broadband, IT services and mobile - to compensate for the decline in its traditional revenues from landlines.

In its most recently published set of quarterly results, for the three months ended 31 December 2005, BT's new wave revenue had increased year-on-year from 12 per cent to 16 per cent of the telco's total revenues.