Carphone Warehouse looks to buy Tiscali

Carphone Warehouse is looking to snap up troubled broadband provider Tiscali at a bargain price, according to a report in yesterday’s Sunday Times.

Tiscali, which provides broadband services in Italy and the UK, put itself up for sale earlier this year, with a self-imposed deadline of 30th June.

Vodafone were about to buy in June, but pulled out at the last minute because of a dispute over Tiscali’s valuation – causing the company to miss its sale deadline.

Now, Carphone Warehouse has expressed interest in buying up Tiscali’s UK business, which accounts for around 70% of the company’s revenue.

Tiscali’s shares have fallen over 30% in the last quarter, giving the company a market value of £602 million.

Carphone’s offer for the UK section of the company is believed to be in the region of £450 million.

Tiscali is the fourth largest broadband provider in the UK, with 1.8 million subscribers.

Carphone Warehouse sees buying the company as an attractive option, as the credit crunch has seen the number of new customers signing up to its services this year fall short of projections.

If Carphone clinches the deal, it will become the biggest provider of broadband in the UK.

Both Carphone Warehouse and Tiscali declined to comment on the report.

BT, Vodafone and Sky have all recently expressed interest in buying up Tiscali’s broadband business.