Carphone confirms bid for Tiscali
The Carphone Warehouse has confirmed it has made a bid for the British broadband assets of Italian internet giant Tiscali.
The news comes as Charles Dunstone, founder of the Carphone Warehouse retail group, unveiled a £1.1 billion investment from US rival Best Buy in an attempt to become one of Europe's dominant retailers taking on Comet, Currys and even Tesco.
Last month, Tiscali hired JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Intesa Sanpaolo's Banca Imi unit to evaluate strategic options aimed at boosting value for its shareholders.
The broadband media company has received a number of preliminary bids and will examine them at a board meeting on 12 May, chief executive Mario Rosso said in a statement.
Last year Tiscali launched its on-demand television service in an attempt to take on pay TV and satellite providers Sky, Virgin Media and BT Vision.
The broadband company also acquired Pipex broadband for £210 million. Following the acquisition Tiscali now has a total of 1.9 million customers and plans to extend its network to over 1,000 sites.
The internet provider recently rolled out an extensive next generation high bandwidth network to support both its business customers and new IPTV triple play product.
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