UPDATE Sky, TalkTalk Join Three UK in Possible O2 Collaboration Talks

A new report claims that Sky (Sky Broadband) and TalkTalk have now both entered the ring as a possible merger or, more likely, collaboration partners for Telefonica’s British mobile network sibling, O2 UK. The news comes only a day after Three UK’s parent, Hutchison Whampoa, said that they were still in talks over a possible £9bn acquisition of O2.

According to the FT (paywall), several people familiar with the situation claim that Sky has been in discussions with Telefonica since “late 2014“, which was also when Three UK and BT were still taking part in similar talks with both EE and O2. Since then BT has of course entered a period of exclusive negotiation with EE (here) and that effectively leaves O2 as the only option.

O2 UK has been left particularly vulnerable by the debts of its parent, not to mention giving up on fixed line broadband and phone services (ironically this was sold off to Sky in March 2013), all of which occurred only a year before BT announced its intention to re-enter the consumer mobile market during spring 2015.

Since then the UK telecoms market has seen a flurry of activity as ISPs and mobile firms slowly morph towards quad-play bundles (convergence). Meanwhile Sky itself has been seeking a mobile solution of its own for some time, although the Pay TV giant’s European expansion has left a big debt pile to consider and the FT’s sources thus suggest that an offer to buy O2 would be unlikely.

Instead it’s suggested that Sky may be seeking a similar collaboration to the one that they were earlier reported to have been seeking with Vodafone, which most recently resulted in Sky inviting 200,000 of their UK phone and broadband customers to trial a new Vodafone-based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) service (here).

But clearly Sky are keen to keep their options open and have thus pursued talks with O2 around a similar arrangement, which we think could continue even if Three UK gobbled the operator. Three UK doesn’t currently have a competing fixed line business and would thus be less of a threat to Sky if they acquired O2.

In the meantime Sky continues to lack a clear mobile proposition, although they’ve clearly developed something with Vodafone. At the same time Sky will no doubt be mindful of the changing dynamic now that Vodafone, in an effort to fend off against BT, will soon be competing with them on fixed line broadband and phone products too. Complicated, isn’t it.

UPDATE 21st Jan 2015

Approach salt, take pinch. The FT has now added that TalkTalk also appears to have been holding discussions with O2, which is interesting because Telefonica’s sibling is currently the ISPs MVNO partner (they replaced Vodafone in that role last November) and TalkTalk itself doesn’t really have the financial clout to buy O2 properly. Instead the talks are of “possible alliances“, whatever that means. At least TalkTalk has got a nice share price boost out of the speculation.