Carphone Warehouse has again signalled interest in taking over the home broadband and fixed-line operations of Tiscali in the UK and Italy. The Milanese comms company announced it was looking out for a buyer of its European ops earlier this year, and bidding for the Tiscali broadband tentacles began in April.
At one point, Vodafone, the worlds biggest mobile network, looks set to snap up Tiscali, in a bid to leapfrog its UK mobile rivals Orange and O2, who both have a strong presence in the UK broadband market. However, Vodafone pulled out in June following a falling out over Tiscali’s valuation of its assets.
Carphone Warehouse (TalkTalk/AOL) were rumoured to be interested, but after the Vodafone fracas, even they seemed disinterested. Now it appears that a buyout of Tiscali is back on the cards, although this time the offer appears to be just for its British and Italian customers – previously the deal was thought to be for all of Tiscali’s continental concerns.
If such a deal goes ahead, the acquisition would see Carphone Warehouse overtake BT and clinch the top spot in the UK Broadband stakes. A merger of the two would see the total combined consumer base swell to a figure in excess of 4.6million, which would leave BT trailing behind in second place, and the Big 6 becoming a Big 5.
Carphone Warehouse currently serves around 2.8 million UK customers through both TalkTalk and AOL UK. Tiscali, through its own subscriber base and that of Pipex, which it annexed in July 2007, serves a figure just shy of 2 million; 1.84 million after losing 37,000 subscribers last quarter.
In a related story, Tiscali began legal proceedings against BT in July, after it transpired that the market leader, wise to news of a sell-off, played on customers understandable fears by sending out letters to Tiscali subscribers, urging them to switch to a provider that is “complete and is here to stay,” (i.e. BT).
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