Engin Yesil & The Start of Ntera's Technology

Engin Yesil & The Start of Ntera's Technology

DALLAS, TX (PRWEB) June 20, 2004 -- WorldQuest Networks Inc., which provides international long-distance and money-transfer services using Internet telephony, said Wednesday it agreed to acquire Ntera Holdings Inc., a privately held company that also provides Internet telephony services.

Ntera is a subsidiary of Radiant Holdings Inc., a Miami provider of prepaid calling cards.

Despite being the acquired company, Ntera stockholders will receive 80 percent of the common stock of the combined company. WorldQuest shareholders will own the remaining 20 percent. Specific terms were not disclosed.

Ntera's majority shareholder, Chief Executive Engin Yesil, will hold 54 percent of the combined company's stock, the companies said.

WorldQuest, of Dallas, will move its executive offices to Miami, where Ntera is based.

The merger means that WorldQuest - which had revenue of $11.5 million in 2002 - will become a company with projected annual revenue of more than $150 million, the companies said.

In Wednesday midday trading, shares of WorldQuest soared $2.45, or 66 percent, to $6.15 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

WorldQuest founder and chairman Michael Adler owns 42 percent of Ntera through Eagle Venture Capital. Peter Lynch, the mutual-fund guru who made his name running the Fidelity Magellan fund in the 1980s, directly and indirectly owns a WorldQuest stake worth about $4 million.

Voice calls routed over the Internet can be cheap because they don't require the carrier to set aside a specific line for the call, as regular phone companies do.