Freeserve creator Pluthero quits

12 April 2012

JOHN PLUTHERO is stepping down from Freeserve, the internet service provider he created for High Street retailer Dixons. He is to become chief executive of struggling telecoms group Energis.

For a time Freeserve was Britain's best known internet start-up. An offshoot of Dixons, it pioneered the concept of free internet use and had more than 2m regular users. In December 2000, Dixons sold it to French rival Wanadoo, a subsidiary of France Telecom.

Pluthero, chief executive of Freeserve. reputedly did not even know how to send an e-mail when he took the concept to Dixons' boss Sir Stanley Kalms in 1997.

Today Pluthero described his departure as 'a wrench'. Freeserve's chief financial officer, Eric Abensur, has been appointed interim chief executive.

Energis, which supplies voice, data and web-hosting services to blue-chip companies, was recently taken over by the 16 banks to which it owed almost £700m. Conservative MP and former Asda boss Archie Norman was parachuted in as chairman.

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