Updated: The buyout was confirmed. Tiscali will also get Pipex’s 480,000 voice customers. Tiscali expects “significant synergies and efficiencies” of around £150 ($300) million. The company, which in March boasted 1.9 million broadband customers, said it makes it stronger in the double- and triple-play market. (Via VNU).
Italian broadband, IPTV and telephony provider Tiscali is expected to acquire a part of one of Britain’s oldest ISPs, Pipex, today in a deal worth almost £210 ($420) million. Tiscali shares were suspended in Milan during the morning pending an announcement. Times reports Pipex had wanted to sell the whole business, which also includes WiMax and web hosting, but only the consumer and business broadband division will be sold.
Tiscali will likely want to integrate Pipex’s network with its own in the UK. The company’s range of offerings has grown in the last year to include IPTV (following its acquisition of HomeChoice) and telephone. But Pipex will extend its infrastructure and give it an additional 570,000 customers to whom to sell services other than connectivity. Pipex itself bought ISPs Bulldog and Toucan last year; it was founded back in 1991, when it joined Demon as one of the U.K.’s first commercial service providers.