Vodafone to acquire Tiscali?
By Dusan Belic on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 2:54 AM PST In Vodafone
More M&A news. Apparently, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) is interested to acquire the Anglo-Italian ISP Tiscali.
According to The Guardian, Tiscali’s board prefers selling both its UK and Italian subsidiaries together rather than separately.
In addition to Vodafone, a host of other companies are also interested in Tiscali — including BSkyB, Orange, Carphone Warehouse, Telecom Italia (NYSE: TI), Fastweb and Sky Italia — but most of them are believed to be interested in just one of the Tiscali subsidiaries, not both.
Following its acquisition of Italian ISP Tele2 last year, Vodafone undoubtedly confirmed its interest in the Italian fixed-line market. Likewise, the Big Red operator is also reportedly keen to expand its UK broadband business, which currently uses BT’s network for access.
Tiscali UK is Britain’s fourth-largest broadband provider with around 1.8 million customers. A deadline for initial non-binding offers is set for May 5.
