Cable & Wireless (C&W) has claimed that its £329m cash (180p-a-share) takeover offer for THUS Group was unconditional. The operator also reported that it now held over 85% of THUS's shares, which is up slightly from 78.5% in August.

C&W said it expected to begin consolidating THUS into its own business today and have its listing cancelled by 30th October. The deal should also result in an unknown amount of cost and capital expenditure savings.

However C&W has also said that its interest in THUS was mainly due to the operators strong portfolio of large business and government customers. This rather begs the question, what will it do with THUS's residential Demon Internet broadband subscribers?