Originally
Dabs Press, from 1987 to 1990, then
Dabs Direct, the company primarily sold its products via advertisements in IT-related magazines. dabs.com was founded in
Bolton by David Atherton and Bruce Smith in 1987;
BT takeover In April 2006 it was announced that
BT Group had purchased dabs.com for an estimated £30m and that the business would become a wholly owned
subsidiary of BT. The company's operations in France were subsequently closed at the end of May 2006.
Closure In April 2016, the dabs.com brand was retired and replaced by BT Shop for consumers and BT Business Direct for business customers. This included the closure of the dabs.ie website for the
Republic of Ireland and the end of consumer-oriented sales there on the same date. ==References==