Phorm down after Carphone ends deal
LONDON (Reuters) - Phorm (PHOR.L) said telecoms services retailer Carphone Warehouse (CPW.L) had ended their commercial agreement, sending shares in the online advertising company down again on Wednesday.
The news, which Phorm said it received on Tuesday, was announced two days after Britain's dominant fixed-line telecoms group, BT Group (BT.L), said on Monday it had no plans to use Phorm's service.
Phorm's shares, which closed at 475 pence on Friday, shares were down 13.4 percent on the day to 210 pence at 9:45 a.m.
The company provides targeted advertising based on an Internet user's browsing history. Although the monitoring is anonymous, the technology has faced opposition from privacy groups.
Phorm said Carphone Warehouse subsidiary TalkTalk Telecom had not trialled the service, unlike BT.
It also said BT retained a commercial agreement with the company and would continue to monitor its progress, and Virgin Media (VMED.O) had adopted a similar wait and see strategy.
Trials are also ongoing with South Korean ISP KT (030200.KS) and two other ISPs, Phorm said, adding it retained a strong balance sheet with adequate cash resources.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Dan Lalor)
