Talktalk buys Tiscali UK for £236m

Talktalk is buying the UK arm of service provider Tiscali, ending months of uncertainty for its 1.8 million subscribers.

The £236m deal will make Talktalk Britain's biggest consumer broadband provider with more than 4.25 million subscribers, the company says.

BSkyB, The Carphone Warehouse and Vodaphone have all been named over the past few months as potential buyers of Tiscali UK, whose Italian parent company has had financial problems.

Last month, Tiscali UK rushed out a statement denying that the broadband access of its million-plus UK subscribers was under threat and accused broadband comparison site Top 10 Broadband of "irresponsibility" for suggesting otherwise.

Clearly, the company feared defections by subscribers whose businesses or work relied on their broadband links. Talktalk itself compounded the threat by offering a £50 discount to Tiscali subscribers switching to its service.

The Tiscali purchase is due to be completed by the end of June. Meanwhile Talktalk says Tiscali subscribers need to do nothing to maintain their connection and that they will be able to retain their current email addresses. For more details see here.