He also looks for value-adding intangibles like strong subscriber bases, supply agreements, industry leadership or unique products or services.
Among EarthLink's peer group, only United Online has been growing, and everyone is trying to eat away at AOL 's 34 million-strong subscriber base.
BSkyB is not the only company interested in Tiscali's 1.8 million-strong subscriber base, which itself was beefed up by preying on smaller broadband providers like Pipex and Toucan.
Perhaps equally significant, however, the deal involves a marketing and infrastructure tie-in that will see Fubra push Buyometric's offering to its existing 3 million-strong subscriber base, with the company also taking over back end responsibilities to cope with the expected increase in server demand.
Revenues were $5.2 billion in the third quarter, and it's undeniable that RIM has a strong BlackBerry subscriber base — currently over 75 million.
Published twice a year, Archer's glossy format and high-quality paper-stock earned it shelf space in boutique stores such as Mag Nation, as well as a 500-strong online subscriber base in its first year.
New lead investor GGV Capital and WPP, which participated in the financing, were intrigued by the company's 1 million community members, 10 million-strong newsletter subscriber base and the addition of 150,000 new signups for the newsletter every month.
"We have a strong subscriber and donor base, but it's aging," Mr. Thomas said.
Online music distributor Napster said Tuesday that based on strong subscriber uptake and better-than-expected sales of downloads to subscribers, it is raising fourth-quarter revenue guidance to between $16.5 million and $17.5 million.
The total postpaid subscriber base is 44.5 million customers strong, as opposed to Verizon's 34.8 million.
