Irish rural broadband provider Imagine is set to make almost half of its Irish employees redundant, just weeks after the company was acquired by Armenia’s Team Group.
In a statement, the Dublin 18-based company, which is understood to employ some 112 people here, confirmed it has entered into a 30-day consultation period with staff over their future with the group.
While the exact number of roles will be determined through the redundancy process, The Irish Times understands around 50 jobs are now in the firing line as the new owners embark upon a restructuring of the Irish company as it shifts away from fixed wireless networks to fibre broadband.
It is understood around 10 jobs will be moved to Armenia as part of the restructuring.
It comes just days after Imagine, which is led by chief executive Niall Tallon, announced it had agreed a new network deal with National Broadband Ireland to expand its fibre broadband offering to existing and new customers.
“Over the coming weeks our priority will be to support employees during this difficult process,” a spokesman for Imagine said in a statement on Thursday evening.
“Since the change in majority ownership in December the company has been upfront with employees about the difficult decisions and changes that would be required as it pivots away from fixed wireless access to the roll-out of new and better fibre-based services to customers.
“Imagine is operating in a highly competitive marketplace and the company needs to restructure in order to realign resources with customers’ evolving needs. While this is a very difficult process we are confident these steps will help ensure the company’s long term viability and the safeguarding of as many jobs as possible.”
Imagine, which had accumulated losses of more than €215.1 million at the end of 2023, was founded by the late telecoms entrepreneur Seán Bolger to roll out a fixed wireless broadband network to bring high-speed services to rural parts of the country.
However, its customer base was eroded by the roll-out of the National Broadband Plan, which brought high-speed fibre broadband to homes and businesses across the State.
Imagine’s majority shareholder, Canadian investor Brookfield, sold the business to Team Group in December.
Led by brothers Hayk and Alexander Yesayan, Team Group is Armenia’s largest fixed-line telecoms operator and a leading mobile network operator in its home country.
At the time the acquisition was announced, the new owners expressed “confidence in Imagine’s potential for long-term growth in Ireland”.
