BSkyB is new favourite to buy Tiscali

Posted on 3 Nov 2008 at 12:24

BSkyB has emerged as the new favourite to buy rival ISP Tiscali.

Both the Financial Times and the Sunday Times report that the satellite TV and broadband operator has edged ahead of Carphone Warehouse (CW) in the auction of Tiscali’s UK broadband business that began back in April.

Sky is said by the Sunday Times to have offered £450 million, the same figure that CW denied bidding in September. But according to the FT, Sky has outbid CW, but the deal is by no means concluded.

“Carphone’s proposal was inferior to Sky’s but if they improve it and Sky doesn’t deliver, then nothing’s over ‘til it’s over,” the FT quotes its source as saying.

If Sky does make a successful bid, then it will be the firs time that it has provided broadband services that do no depend on taking out a satellite TV subscription. It will also make Sky, which only entered the market in July 2006, the UK’s third largest provider behind BT and Virgin Media. Were CW to takeover, it would leap both of those to become the number one, having been in the business just a few months longer than Sky.

Author: Simon Aughton

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