Carphone Warehouse Tiscali buyout approved
Posted 1st July 2009 at 2:18pm by Kimberley Howson
TalkTalk owner Carphone Warehouse's takeover of internet service provider (ISP) Tiscali UK has been approved by the European Commission (EC).
The £236 million purchase of the broadband supplier was found to be in line with the EU's antitrust laws and the green light was officially given on Tuesday June 30th.
Following the acquisition, TalkTalk will become the UK's largest ISP with 4.25 million residential customers.
However, the Commission said in a statement that it did not feel that the merged broadband provider would threaten competition within the UK.
It added: "The new entity will continue to face competition from a number of strong players, especially BT, as well as from a number of strong alternative operators, including those based on the cable platform."
What's more, the EC also highlighted the growing competition to fixed connections that is being provided by the rapidly expanding mobile broadband market.
Last week, Tiscali claimed that broadcasters including the BBC and ITV should be paying ISPs to help towards the infrastructure costs of delivering online TV content.