Several Italian newspapers have this morning reported that The Carphone Warehouse ( TalkTalk , AOL UK , Opal etc. ) is preparing to make a new bid for Tiscali UK by the end of this month. The news has subsequently caused shares in the debt ridden broadband ISP to jump by 10%.

It's unlikely that Carphone's offer will be anything like the £450m that the same group offered early last year, which Tiscali promptly rejected in the belief that it could get more. Since then it has failed to secure bids from both Vodafone and BSkyB ( Sky Broadband ), largely due to the groups fast declining value and mounting debt (original news).

Obvious irony aside, Tiscali UK currently has 1,768,000 broadband customers and employs several hundred UK staff. It recently came perilously close to entering administration before being thrown a lifeline by banks who temporarily suspended interest payments on the group’s debt.

Typically neither side has offered any official comment on the latest developments, except to confirm that talks aimed at selling Tiscali's UK Internet access business had, once again, been restarted. We expect their real-world value to be around £250/300m.