Major ISPs table offers for Pipex

BT and a host of major ISPs have tabled offers for Pipex.

BT, along with Carphone Warehouse, Virgin Media and BskyB have joined the bidding for the broadband and hosting provider which has over 570,000 customers.  BT is understood to have regulatory approval for buying out Pipex.  However, Virgin Media is thought to be the front-runner and have apparently prepared a 20p per share bid.

Pipex was the target of takeover speculation last year along with Plusnet, of which the latter was subsequently bought by BT.  Last year, AOL’s UK broadband arm was also bought out by Carphone Warehouse.

The Pipex group, which owns brands such as Freedom2Surf (broadband) and Web Fusion (hosting) recently appointed UBS as advisor to a potential sale and began accepted bids from interested parties last week.