Destra Corporation

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Destra Corporation Limited
ASX: DES
Industry Digital media
FoundedAs a business - 1993
As a public company - 2000 [1]
Defunct13 November 2008 (2008-11-13)
FateEntered administration in 2008
Headquarters Melbourne, Australia
Key people
 Domenic Carosa (founder)

Destra Corporation Limited, previously known as Sprint Corporation and Ehyou, was an independent Australian owned media and entertainment company based in Richmond, Victoria founded by Domenic Carosa. [2] Destra's interests spanned film, internet, music, theatre and retail, including Magna Pacific.

Contents

During its peak years, Destra was one of the largest online music distributors in Australia, while also specializing in hosting and domain registry. In the mid-2000s, the company reached $100 million in annual turnover. The company's shareholders included Prime Media, whose stake represented 44% at April 2008. [2] [3]

Following the collapse of Opes Prime in 2007, Destra announced they were suffering financially and it went on to lose $76.9 million between 2007 and early 2008. The company was split into a number of divisions before its subsidiaries were sold. Destra became defunct in November 2008.

History

Domenic Carosa and Anna Carosa founded Destra Corporation in 1993. The Carosas were only teenagers when they came up with the concept, which they originally called Sprint. In its early days, the company owned entertainment websites in Australia and formed Ozhosting.com in 1995 to provide hosting to small businesses. [4] Sprint purchased a number of smaller Australian-based hosting companies over the next couple of years in order to increase its market share in the hosting market. This included BlueFire and also GlobalHost. Both companies remained as separate entities under Sprint but operated under the OzHosting.com brand. [4]

In 2000, Sprint Corporation was rebranded as Ehyou in order to expand into other online fields besides hosting. This included the purchasing of mp3.com.au, with the aim of moving more into the online music and digital downloads market. [5] Over the next couple of years, Destra expanded its hosting offerings geographically through acquisitions of Cyberhost, lasiaworks, and Ocean Internet's hosting division. Destra also acquired Webtrader in January 2001, a move which further diversified its services. The company was then integrated under the OzHosting subsidiary, making the hosting brand the second largest retail hosting company in Australia. [6]

During 2002, Destra continued to acquire hosting companies, including Enet21 and SuperHosting. Most notably, Destra announced in 2002 that they had acquired a 60% controlling interest in TPP Internet, which was one of Australia's largest domain name registrars at the time. [7]

In 2004, the subsidiary OzHosting was integrated into a new part of the business. The OzHosting brand was shelved, and OzHosting and Techex merged to form Destra. During the same year, Destra won the PowerTel Partner of the Year award. [8] During its first year as the Destra brand, the company announced that they had reached a partnership agreement with Yahoo! to create a new suite of services that would be integrated into the subsidiary, OzHosting. [9] In 2005, Destra reported revenue of over $15 million, up 73% from the previous year, with revenues of $15.739 million, up 73 percent. [10]

In 2006, Destra was the largest digital music provider in Australia, with more than 1.3 million tracks in its online music catalogue. [11] At the time, the company was strategically developing advertising revenue streams across its websites. [12]

After making a number of acquisitions, Destra was greatly affected by the collapse of Opes Prime in 2008. [13] [14] [15] In 2007–08, Destra lost $76.9 million, having made 13 acquisitions in the previous three years. [16] In November 2008, Destra's divisions were sold in administration [17] [18] to companies including Fremantle Media; Central Station Records; Brand New Media; Eddie MacGuire's Visual Entertainment Group; producer of the Discovery Channel's hit show MythBusters , Beyond International; and Domenic Carosa's Dominet Digital. [19]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Ryan, Paul (1 October 2008). "What I Have Learnt (the hard way)". Australian Anthill. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Destra (DES) 25c". The Australian . 16 November 2007. Archived from the original on 10 December 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2007.
  3. ↑ Leyden, Fleur; Haynes, Rhys (23 April 2008). "Destra chief Dominic Carosa sacked". Herald Sun.
  4. 1 2 Bourlifoufas, Nicki (26 March 2010). "Another punt on net value: second dotcom boom". The Australian .
  5. ↑ Nogrady, Bianca (March 2008). "'Jack of all trades' becomes media master". Swineburne University.
  6. ↑ Ryan, Paul (1 October 2008). "What I have learnt (the hard way) – Domenic Carosa". Anthill Online. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
  7. ↑ "Destra Acquires Controlling Interest in TPP Internet One of Australia's Largest Domain Name Registrars". TopHosts. 20 May 2013.
  8. ↑ "destra launches destra Business & wins PowerTel Partner of the Year award". CSO.com.au. 23 February 2005.
  9. ↑ "Destra, Yahoo! add new features for SMEs". ZDNet . 18 May 2004.
  10. ↑ Corner, Stuart (12 September 2005). "Destra Corporation reports maiden full year profit". IT Wire.
  11. ↑ Destra (11 January 2006). "destra Music - largest digital music provider in Australia" (Press release). PC Word. Archived from the original on 9 January 2016.
  12. ↑ "Destra buys ad company for $12m". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. 4 September 2006. Archived from the original on 30 November 2007.
  13. ↑ Urban, Rebecca (5 April 2008). "Little-known Opes, spectacular failure". The Australian .
  14. ↑ Sharma, Mahesh (23 April 2008). "Destra board suffers Opes fallout". The Australian .
  15. ↑ Waters, Cara (20 February 2013). "Directors refusing appointments and considering resigning because of red tape and liability: Research". Smart Company.
  16. ↑ Thomson, James (26 August 2008). "Destra slumps to big loss and slams former CEO Dominic Carosa's strategy". Smart Company. Archived from the original on 9 January 2016.
  17. ↑ "Destra in voluntary administration". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. AAP. 13 November 2008. Archived from the original on 5 March 2012.
  18. ↑ Thomson, James (14 November 2008). "Destra placed in administration. What went wrong?". Smart company. Archived from the original on 11 December 2015.
  19. ↑ Akerman, Pia (20 July 2011). "Burnt but cool with the outcome". The Australian .
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