Posted: 22nd Dec, 2008 By: MarkJ
BSkyB (
Sky Broadband / Sky TV) has reportedly pulled out of sale talks with
Tiscali UK because of differences over the price.
Tiscali had originally hoped to get £600m for its UK division, though BSkyB initially entered talks with a figure of £450m in mind, which is almost identical to one tabled by
The Carphone Warehouse (
TalkTalk) in September.
However
The Guardian reports that
Tiscali UK's continued poor performance, such as its recent decline in broadband subscribers (
news), has called even BSkyB's lower offer into question.
The news will come as a blow to
Tiscali's customers, which would have benefitted from the investment BSkyB could have brought. The ISP has now been up for sale since May 2008 and is operating in an increasingly difficult market with very few rivals being likely to risk further acquisitions.
It's unclear what will happen next although
Tiscali could agree a lower price and thus restart negotiations. In addition
The Carphone Warehouse (
TalkTalk) is still believed to have a passing interest, despite its two prior offers being shunned. Now is perhaps not the best time for
Tiscali to be choosy.