BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : FEBRUARY 7, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- SPECIAL REPORT -- LEADERS Renato Soru: Tiscali Renato Soru Tiscali Position Founder and CEO Contribution Pioneered free Internet service in Italy, spurring growth in the countryšs sleepy online market Ambition To shape Europešs Internet economy by slashing telecom costs and developing new Web services It took a shopping mall developer from Sardinia to electrify Italy's sluggish Internet market. Renato Soru, 42, launched telecom and Internet startup Tiscali in 1998 with $600,000 of his own money and the unshakable conviction that Italians would learn to love the Net even though they seemed to disdain personal computers. ''The Internet will drive computer sales in Italy, not the reverse,'' says Soru. So far, he's spot on. Soru saw what others in his country had overlooked: Net access was too expensive. The first to introduce free Internet service in Italy in November, 1998, upstart Tiscali forced the high-priced competition, including Telecom Italia, to do the same. That more than tripled the number of frequent Italian cybersurfers last year, to three million, and handed Tiscali nearly 30% of the market. Now he's looking to move across the Continent. To fuel that, Soru took his company public in October. With $140 million in cash from the initial offering and a market capitalization of $6.5 billion, Soru is now a force to be reckoned with. He already has snapped up telecom companies in France and Switzerland. Next, he plans to expand into Spain. ''FREELOSOPHY.'' Soru admits that he's got to stay one step ahead of the competition. For starters, he says, his business model is geared for the next technology wave--integrating phone, data, and mobile services, which allows him to cross-sell services. He charges low rates for phone service--and offers extra discounts to users of Net access services. Abiding by what he calls his ''freelosophy,'' broadband Net access and phone calls will eventually be gratis. And revenues? Now, they come from phone service, but future profits will come from financial and shopping services he plans to offer. Sure, he still faces a host of established telecom giants, but he doesn't mind being David to their Goliaths. ''You don't need muscle, you need brains. If you have brains, you get money,'' says Soru. Soru's strategy is still a work in progress. But his rivals already have learned not to underestimate the man who made the Internet blossom in Italy. By Gail Edmondson _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Europe's Top e.business Leaders Ola Ahlvarsson: Result Venture Knowledge International Tomasz Czechowicz: Poland.com Nina Brink: World Online International N.V. Hasso Plattner: SAP Renato Soru: Tiscali Mark Schneider: United Pan-European Communications Kurt Hellstrom: Ericsson Ernesto Schmitt: peoplesound.com Chahram Becharat: Europ@web Paulus Neef: Pixelpark AG INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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