Rebels take control of Opticom and Fast Search & Transfer. Will Fast be sold to Yahoo?

Remember Fast Search & Transfer, the company behind the AlltheWeb search engine? Since Overture (now Yahoo!) bought AlltheWeb Fast has been out of the search engine portal limelight.

The Norwegian company is doing very well, though, although now with a focus on enterprise search, i.e. search technology for intranets and company data processing.

Fast is also delivering technology to a few search sites out there, including the Norwegian Sesam portal.

A significant part of the Fast stock (26.9 percent) is owned by Opticom, which again has been controlled by two Brits, Robert Keith and Thomas Fussell. This apparently suited Fast CEO John M. Lervik fine, as they gave him room for long term planning.

Keith and Fussell had to sell some of their shares, however, and in yesterday’s shareholder meeting rivals of Keith and Fussell – the ones who bought the shares — managed barely to take control of Opticom (50.1 percent of the vote).

Fast has recently bought shares in Opticom (yes, we know this is confusing), and if Fast had received and used those shares, the rebels would probably has lost. However, Fast did not get them in time. Fussel and Keith are now demanding a new shareholder meeting on December 20. They will get it.

The rebels, Petter Stordalen, Øystein Stray Spetalen, the company Orkla and others, are fighting for control of Opticom’s share of Fast Search & Transfer.

It is no secret that Fast leader Lervik prefers Fussel and Keith as they may help him keep Fast independent. It is unclear what the Opticom “rebels� would like to do with the company.

They may sell. The rumour mill has it that Yahoo! is interested in buying the company, as are “unknown investors from the Pacific rim�

However, Orkla’s Director of Investments, Anders Berggren, says to DN.no that a Fast sale is not on the agenda.

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DN: Opprørerne vant Opticom-slaget