Ok, I tried to find the old 'Is Tiscali for sale?' thread, but they seem to have mysteriously dissappeared.

Anyway, yesterday the CEO of Tiscali was booted out (although he's hanging around as a director until the 2007 financial results are approved) and Reuters are reporting that alledgely 3 companies - BT, Vodafone and an italian company Fastwebs are being seen as potential bidders. http://uk.reuters.com/article/merger...80228?rpc=401&

For current subscribers, I'm not sure if either of those three are good news - I suspect if BT gets it, they'll switch you all over to BT Vision (Freeview through the Aerial, VOD through the phoneline) and I wouldn't be surprised if that would be all that Vodafone would offer as well (as that's what Orange will be offering when they launch their TV product).

I'm wondering if this explains why customer service told me yesterday they only supply engineers Monday to Friday 9-5 now, and quite happily cancelled my 7 month old subscription when I complained.

I think Virgin would be the most obvious buyer.. already a media player and this would give them a non-cabled audience and platform. Same for Sky.. and of course BT.. def up for sale as noted in the register.. makes you wonder tho, is the first thing sa new owner does is to raise the prices? actually they cant do that for existing customers as there is a twelve month contract . I bet they're selling as they cant afford to go Hi-def (5-6mb)and multi channel(2x 6mb) . Thats gotta be on the horizon. Personally. I think Tony Soprano should make them an offer they cant refuse.

I think it would be ideal for Sky. On demand TV is becoming more and more important and Sky can't offer true VOD to a TV audience yet. Tiscali TV would allow it to offer VOD and broadcast channels to those who don't want or can't have a satellite dish. Plus they are cash rich and have ITV shares to sell.

It would also be idea for BT. It clearly wants a broadcasting presence and at the moment it's going to take a very long time with BT vision to build up significant numbers.

I can see why Virgin would want it...as badbingo says to chase after non cable households.

The other player I've heard talked about is Vodafone who are favourites to buy up the Italian ISP division. Again big telco trying to break into the broadband market with no real broadcasting division. Depends how keen they are I guess.

O2 (telefonica) and Orange would also have an interest but I don't know how rich they are.

Remember that the UK side of Tiscali is just a subsidiary of the Italian parent company, so any of the big European telecoms or broadcasting companies could jump in, including Canal+, Telefonica, Deutsch Telekom, even Berlusconi's Mediaset.

It seems like a nice match for Vodafone to be honest. Ofcom may even demand that a bid from Sky or BT include the immediate selling off of the UK arm, which would obviously put them off.

Given that Tiscali already have a large (and growing) UK customer base, perhaps as a result of the current advertising campaign, one could imagine that it could be attractive to certain bidders.
The attraction of the service provided is primarily cost. Tiscali provides a one stop solution for those wishing to add VOD and extra channels to freeview alongside broadband and telephone services.
Having looked at other service providers, I rejected them largely because I did not want to pay excessive amounts for TV channels I would never watch.
Should Tiscali be taken over, I would look forward to improved customer service, and a timescale for HD broadcasts, Any move to hike prices would see me searching for another supplier at the end of my current contract.
Tiscali provides a value for money service , but, at present, it shows no sign of competing with the (expensive) top end services available though other providers

It would be ideal for Virgin, but with Virgin's current financial woes, they're unlikely to be able to fund any deal.

Surely an offer by BT would be passed to the competition commission? Same with Sky?

Virgin - Not going to bid, they have no money and are more likely to be taken over themselve.

Vodafone - Just bought the BB provider Tele2 in Italy and which is a clear indication that BB is a focus in Italy and they have launched BB in the UK using a third party network, so it would be a good fit.

O2 - Just bought BE internet ( think it was them) and so already has a network, not a natural fit.

Sky - No bid, would not be allowed and already have BB network.

Private Equity - Credit markets make the financing hard.

BT - Regulator would not allow.

Orange - Already has BB network.

Deutche Telekom - I don't think they have BB in the UK, they may be interested

I don't think it's quite as simple as that. In fact, having a BB network makes it *more* likely that they'll bid for this rather than less because this is about consoladation in the BB market - the big players getting bigger and not new players entering the market.

Sky wouldn't have any regulatory issues with this purchase - neither Easynet/Skynet or Tiscali is a dominant player in the BB market and even when merged, they'd still be smaller than BT, Virgin and CPW/Talktalk. I actually doubt that even BT would have problems if they wanted to buy Tiscali - the BB market is just too diversified and competitive in the UK for Ofcom/OFT/CC to have to worry about it.

From the TV side of things, Virgin have stated that, eventually, they want to roll out their Cable TV service onto ADSL to get offnet customers. They signed a deal with Cable and Wireless to work towards that - but have postponed the launch until at least the end of next year, possible indefinately. However, if they bought Tiscali, they could rebrand it as Virgin Media straight away and launch now. Virgin are probably also one of the few companies who would be willing to continue the *linear* TV channels on Tiscali.

Sky, also, is probably looking at projections of sales and are wondering when they'll hit their peak of people willing to get a dish - cos they will eventually. The problem they'll have though is selling two different TV services. Would Minidishes still be the 'default' and Tiscali only offered to those who can't get a dish, and if so, what price would you charge?

Tiscali's big asset isn't the TV service - it's the broadband network it's got and the LLU lines. Any other internet provider is just going to be interested in acquiring this esp. if they've also got their own LLU setup already so that they can merge their networks to save money.