Alchemy Partners Set to Support Opus Broadband’s Bid for UK ISP TalkTalk
At the start of this month we reported that TalkTalk’s debt-strained consumer broadband division, which has been up for sale for a while, was now understood to be fielding interest from Opus Broadband, in addition to Vodafone and possibly others. The latest development is that investment firm Alchemy Partners is reportedly backing Opus to make a c.£250m bid for the ISP.
The development suggests that wireless ISP Opus Broadband (formerly 6G Internet), which is connected to UK network operator IX Wireless and Tahir Mohsan, may now be leading the effort to secure a deal to buy TalkTalk’s consumer business. But a formal agreement has yet to be struck and others, like Vodafone, are still potentially well-placed to make a more attractive offer.
According to Sky News, any transaction for TalkTalk’s consumer division, which is home to around 1.8 million broadband customers, would need to follow an agreement for the group to offload its wholesale network – PlatformX Communications (formerly Talk Talk Wholesale) – to Octopus Investments (the current front-runner for acquiring PXC), which controls broadband infrastructure group Fern Trading.
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TalkTalk’s consumer business is strongly linked to PXC’s wholesale products, thus any deal for one side of the business or the other would require some agreement on how that relationship continues into the future. We should add that Fern Trading also backs wholesale fibre aggregation business AllPoints Fibre Networks (APFN) and London-focused business ISP Vorboss. Credits to YuGi for the news tip.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I’m confused? Am I missing something? (or is the company structure intentionally misleading – using the company # on the Opus BB website) – 6G internet seemingly have 2 employees as of their filing in July ’25.
So if they buy it, they’re going to run TT Consumer “as is?” because I don’t see how they can all of a sudden absorb that many customers and actually run it?
Take the loss making part of TT and … run it without merging into your already mature service feels like it’s not a serious bid, surely?
I get they’ve made new PLC’s this year etc. but the “trading” company that they’re using currently is already running at a loss – I don’t understand how you can table a bid like this?
Maybe go and search for ‘Time Computers’ for some history
If that’s in response to me then you’ve clearly missed the point that I’m making. Tahir Mohsan listed has no association from a companies house pov. TIME also has been defunct for 20 years, managing an investment into a company is significantly different to running/founding one. Should it still be used as a yardstick of successful investments? more likely the investment portfolio should be looked at and compared to how well they’ve done…
From CH, they have 2 employees, and about £2m/loss.
They want to buy a company which although not broken down to just consumer, has a chunk of £400m/loss, and a huge weight of debt.
How does this make sense? how would a regulator who had any sense allow a company operating with 2 perm staff, buy an ISP which has 1.8m customers ? It doesn’t realistically matter if the offer is more attractive, if the company will cease as a going concern because it can’t maintain its current momentum.
If I’m missing something “obvious” in my above paragraph then I’m all ears, because at the minute the suggestion looks like someone running small a local bakery is going to buy something the size of Greggs and hope for the best 😀 Yes – if it’s bought all the staff/knowledge etc. will “come with” but that’s likely part of TT’s problem surely? the way it’s being ran, and their running costs to achieve that…
@ Matt:
I think you might not have read all the footnotes, followed the trails, or checked the available “Significant Control” information before drawing your conclusions.
There is something very suspicious about the likes of Opus / 6G, etc. I have yet to see or hear of anyone signing up to it. They’ve had their poles in the street where my partner lives for years and they have nothing attached to them.