NetBenefit Plc and PNCTele.com Plc experienced significant surges in share price yesterday, after they announced a partnership that will see a number of cross-selling initiatives and technology integrations. NetBenefit closed up 11% at 258 pence, while PNC gained a massive 55% to close at 142 pence.
NetBenefit provides hosting and domain name services to companies in the UK, and it will offer PNC’s telephony services, such as its E-call email-to-voice messaging service, to its clients. PNC will in turn sell domain names and web/email forwarding via its own site.
Future cooperations are expected to include a domain-name-to-phone-number service, where customers will be offered alphanumeric phone numbers based on their URLs, and vice-versa. The next tie-up is likely to involve NetBenefit integrating PNC’s Premium Key system into its hosting service, so clients can offer web content paid for by a user dialing into an internet service provider on a premium rate number.
NetBenefit competitor VirtualInternet Plc yesterday also benefited from an increased share price, as the new got around that it had appointed ABN AMRO Equities UK Limited as nominated broker and Hoare Govett Limited as nominated adviser to the company, the first AIM-listed firm to sign the two firms. Its shares rose 13.35% to stop at 310 pence.
