Tiscali has long been looking for a buyer for its UK broadband operations. They have approximately 1.7m broadband subscribers in the UK, with the result that a host of potential buyers expressed an interest including Sky, Vodafone, and Carphone Warehouse.
Carphone and Vodafone appeared to drop out of the process last year, unimpressed with the £500m valuation that Tiscali was seeking. This left only Sky in the running, but negotiations collapsed recently and there was genuine concern that Tiscali may not find a buyer and even slip into administration.
Indeed Tiscali shares were suspended from the Italian stock exchange earlier this month after it warned that it will not be able to meet interest payments as it had been planning to use the proceeds from the sale to pay down its £558m debt.
But there are reports today that Carphone may be back in the running, clearly hoping to drive down the asking price at the 11th hour. And there are even rumours that Sky may also rejoin the bidding process.
This is good news for Tiscali’s broadband, home phone and digital TV customers who were faced with an uncertain future.