In what seems to be a case of preventing the in-fashion tail of the business from wagging the dog, Cambridge-based Unipalm Group Plc is merging its Internet access company, Pipex Ltd, with its software company, Unipalm Ltd. The new organisation, which will be known as Unipalm Pipex, will offer local and wide area network to Internet access, software, training and support, all from one source, the logic being that those eager to get on the information superhighway do not want to have to shop around for services and kit. However, the names Unipalm Ltd and Public IP Exchange Ltd will continue to exist as business entities. The holding company, Unipalm Group Plc, said at its half yearly results in January, that despite an investment of ú1.5m, it did not expect Pipex to make a profit until the turn of the century. At that time, it reported a loss of ú462,000 on turnover of ú1.3m, while the unipalm software business saw profit of ú611,000 on turnover of ú6.5m (CI No 2,590).
