Finally...?
On the anniversary of Tiscali first putting itself up for sale, the troubled Italian ISP could be finally being put out of its misery, according to reports in the Financial Times today.
It looks like Carphone Warehouse (CPW) has put in an informal offer of £250 million for Tiscali, having been linked to a bid for twice that amount a year ago. If it's accepted, Tiscali shareholders will have mixed feelings, with BSkyB having also been in the running until recently and shares trading at a fraction of their value of a year ago.
CPW, which uses the Talk Talk brand for its ISP operations, stands to overtake Virgin Media as the UK's second largest ISP behind BT if the deal goes through. Tiscali also owns the Nildram, Pipex and Freedom 2 Surf ISP brands in the UK.
Incidentally the FT is also reporting today that the retail arm of CPW, which is jointly owned by US technology retailer Best Buy, is scaling down its plans to open 100 ‘big box' joint-venture stores in the UK.
It cites Best Buy International CEO Robert Willet as the source of the update and said the number is likely to be more like 80 now. As with previous revisions of its European ambitions, Best Buy is blaming the global economy and seems to be adopting a wait and see strategy.
