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PowerTech Information Systems

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Yngvadottir (talk | contribs) at 17:34, 16 April 2012 (2 categories, info from 10-year anniversary article in Aftenposten, corroborating ref from elsewhere about co-ownership of Start.no. Added 2 cats.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

PowerTech Information Systems AS is a Norwegian, Oslo-based Internet service provider founded in 1993.

PowerTech was founded in fall 1993 in tiny quarters in Storgata, Oslo, by teenagers Øystein Homelien, Lars Nøring, Harald Paulsen, and Henry Dramstad. They had dropped out of school and were all still minors; Nøring's father became chairman of the company for legal reasons.[1] In an interview with Aftenposten in 1994, they said "their biggest dream was to give the Internet to the people."[1] They initially provided internet service only to individuals, but later changed their focus to small- to mid-sized companies. Initially, the founders drew only minimal salaries from the company, and in 1996/97 the company had to take a large charge to replace equipment. In 2003, three of the founders were still with the company, which had an annual turnover of approximately 30 million kroner and had received outside investment of some four million kroner, but was still 50% owned by the four founders and their families.[1]

PowerTech's original rival was OsloNett, which was started by IT professionals from the University of Oslo and was later acquired by Telenor. Numerous other ISPs appeared in Norway in 1996/97, most of which no longer exist.[1] The company was part owner with Dagbladet of the internet portal Start.no,[1][2] which is now the Start Network.


References

  1. ^ a b c d e Gunhild M. Haugnes, "Nerder med ni liv: Tidlig på 90-tallet droppet fire unge tenåringer skolen for å skape sitt eget IT-eventyr. Og etter ti vellykkede år i tidenes mest turbulente bransje peker pilene fortsatt i været for de unge gründerne i Powertech," Aftenposten January 26, 2003 Template:No icon
  2. ^ Sverre Rørvik Nilsen, "Nettportalen taper penger: Dagbladet-eide Start.no klarte ikke å levere positive resultater for 2007," Hegnar Online, April 8, 2008 Template:No icon


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