Broadband ISP TalkTalk exits controlling UK stake in Telecom Acquisitions Ltd UPDATE2

The TalkTalk Group has this week relinquished its controlling stake in the Horsham-based Telecom Acquisitions Group (TAL), which is a holding company for a number of familiar retail broadband ISP brands (Home Telecom, Eclipse Broadband etc.). The move means that TAL is now operating as a totally separate company.

According to the latest update to company records on Companies House, which has been spotted by ISPreview, both the TalkTalk Telecom Group and TAL’s existing boss, Nigel Barnett, ceased holding significant control of the company on 8th September 2026. Previously TalkTalk held a controlling c.51% share of the company.

The development comes at an extremely difficult time for the TalkTalk Group, which on Friday last week finally confirmed they were in “advanced discussions regarding potential disposals of its PXC [wholesale] and TalkTalk Consumer [broadband] businesses“. The company currently appears to now be in the final 24-48 hours of trying to resolve its future, before another major bill is due to be paid to Openreach (said to be costing around £60m to £80m).

At the time of writing TAL hasn’t yet put out an official press release on the change of control (we’ll update when this arrives), although ISPreview understands from our sources that their plan to go independent has been in the works for well over a year (this pre-dates TalkTalk’s current drama over the sale of their customer bases / remaining businesses).

TAL is now a totally separate company from the TalkTalk Group, apart from the usual trading / wholesale arrangements needed to support their retail ISPs. TAL currently controls the following UK broadband / telecoms brands: Home Telecom, Fleur Telecom, Eclipse Broadband, Open Fibre, Earth Broadband, Hive Telecom, and EZE Talk.

UPDATE 4th Oct 2026

TAL has confirmed that the business is now controlled 89.8% (shareholding) by Nigel Barnett (CEO), with the remaining 10.2% belonging to Adrian Gill. The holding company Telecom Acquisitions Holding Limited is the vehicle for this majority stake.

UPDATE 6th Oct 2026

ISPreview has got some official details on this transaction. In short, TAL bought back the 50.1% of shares owned by TalkTalk at a similar £8m EV to that at which TalkTalk invested in November 2022.

“Whilst TalkTalk is no longer a shareholder, TAL will continue to buy services from PXC, as well as customer bases, including the recent 13k that couldn’t be migrated to the new Kraken platform and the 12k acquired from a destressed base from administrators for an undisclosed sum subject to contract. It also aims to buy further bases from other ISPs. Against FY26 (February)’s £3.4m EBITDA on £25.4m revenues from 60k customers, TAL is aiming for >£34.5m/>£6.5m for FY27 and >£42.0m/£8.0m for FY28, from planned base acquisitions and continued organic growth,” said the official update.

The deal will be accompanied by a management change, with TAL founder and CEO Nigel Barnett focussing on M&A, with his daughter Sasha Barnett taking over day to day operations.