By Sally Jackson
AFTER an enforced seven-year diversion from his original business plan, Domenic Carosa says he is back on track with his ambitions for destra Corp, the company he co-founded as a teenager
During the past 18 months destra has announced a string of buys as Carosa pursues his original vision of the company as a cross-platform media business, selling content and advertising.
"You could say we are going back to the future, back to all the things we were planning to do in 1999-2000 but the market wasn't ready for," he says.
Last week destra announced the acquisition of print publications 3D World and Oyster, and their associated websites, for $1.75million in cash and $500,000 in shares.
destra was founded by Carosa and his sister in 1993 and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2000 as a digital media company.
But when the dotcom crash halved the online advertising market soon after, destra put its digital media aspirations on hold and switched to web hosting.
Last year it signalled another change in direction, selling the Destra Hosting business to Blue Freeway and offloading all non-core assets, creating a $17 million kitty. During the past 18 months the company has ploughed the money into 11 acquisitions, including DVD distributor Magna Pacific, music label Central Station Records and a stake in online DVD rental business Quickflix.
Its other interests include the licence to operate pay-television channel Fashion TV in Australia.
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