blizoo
![]() | |
Joint Stock Company | |
Industry | telecommunications |
Founded | 2010 |
Defunct | 2016 |
Headquarters | Sofia, Bulgaria |
Products | Cable television, Telephony, Internet services |
Revenue | EUR 40 million (2014) |
Website | http://www.blizoo.bg |
blizoo was a Bulgarian telecommunications operator. It was formed by merging two of the biggest television operators in the country — Eurocom Cable and CableTel, in 2010. In June 2016 it was merged in Mtel.
Services
History
It was founded in 1992 as "Unicoms Trading" in Sofia, and after 1995, in Pleven, Lom and Oryahovo.
In 1999, it built an optic-coaxial network in Sofia providing fast access to Interet DOCSIS protocol.
In 2001 it was rebranded as Eurocom Cable which unifies all subsidiaries part of "Eurocom" from Sofia and the country. Activity is the delivery of cable TV, high speed Internet and conventional Internet.
In 2002 the SEEF fund invests more than 10 million dollars.
In 2005 it was bought by the Dutch company "FN Cable Holdings B.V." from the group Warburg Pincus (1 of the 3 funds, participated in the bought of Vivacom, then BTC (Bulgarian Telecommunications Company)).
In 2006 "Eurocom" begins to operate its own build metro-coaxial-optical network in Bulgaria, it also begins to offer LAN Internet through its subsidiary "InterBGCom".
In 2007 "Eurocom" announced triple service (triple play) - transferring voice (Phone), video (Television) and data(Internet), which is still in use today.
In 2009 the Swedish investment fund EQT V acquires for 120 millions EUR "Eurocom Cable" completely, and 70% from the then opponent „CableTel“. Additional 90 millions EUR were invested.
On 17 May 2010 the 2 companies are officially merged into one under the "blizoo" brand, phasing out the longstanding "Eurocom" and "CableTel" brands.. After the merging "blizoo" is officially the largest telecommunication operator in Bulgaria. Later that year "blizoo" buys the Montana's cable operator (Mont7) and Dobrich's internet provider "Link BG".
On July 29, 2015 mobile operator Mobiltel agreed to acquire "blizoo", after previously acquiring rival companies Megalan Network and Spectrum Net. The Bulgarian "Commission for protection of concurrence" (CPC) gave green light of the deal and the merger of the two companies in late 2015.
In June 2016 a commercial campaign "blizoo becomes part of Mtel" announced the mergerer. There are no longer blizoo packages. Current customers will stay on they contract, new ones will sign a new one with "Mtel (Bulgaria)".