Later Company History
In 1996 the Thornleys decided to expand CIX's services to include full 0845 dialup Internet access known as CIX Internet. However, take up was limited (possibly due to an above-average cost) even though technically it was rated for many years as one of the best internet providers in the UK.
In March 1998 a management buy-in backed by Legal & General Ventures was successful. The buy-in team comprised Doug Birtley, Managing Director; Niels Gotfredsen, Finance Director; Graham Davies, Sales and Marketing Director and Lisa Pennington. Frank and Sylvia Thornley contracted to remain with the company for a minimum of three years.
In 2000 CIX was sold to Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunications company. CIX was re-branded and merged with XTML of Manchester and Norsk Data of Newbury to form the UK arm of Nextra, the UK Internet subsidiary of Telenor.
In June 2002 the CIX service was outsourced by Telenor to Parkglobe, a company specially set up for the purpose by several long-term staffers and directors led by Graham Davies.
In July 2002 Telenor sold the business to GX Networks aka PIPEX.
In 2004 CIX Conferencing was made accessible via a new service CIX Online by CIX Online Ltd, giving a Web interface as an alternative to the text interface. Customer acceptance of the web interface was limited compared to the OLRs (Off Line Readers - this allowed the upload and download of new messages with messages editing performed off-line) that most Cixen use.
In April 2007 the first prototype of the CIX Forums website was launched by CIX Online Ltd. This new online way to access the content is designed to attract more users.
In September 2008 Graham Davies of CIX Online Ltd. announced that the API behind CIX Forums would be available in October 2008 allowing interested parties to create additional user add-ons.
On 25 May 2011, CIX Online Ltd. was purchased by ICUK, an ISP, hosting and telecoms provider formed in November 2001 by an ex-employee of Compulink Information eXchange Ltd. ICUK in its press release has said it intends to grow and expand CIX Conferencing for new and existing users of both companies.
In April 2012, version 2 of CIX Forums was released. Version 2 contained numerous bug fixes, enhancements, speed optimisations and an improved user interface.
July 2012 brought version 3 of CIX Forums, featuring further design improvements and a new notification system, allowing users to receive instant replies to messages posted.
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