Tiscali confirms buyout of Pipex broadband

Tiscali has confirmed it is to buy Pipex’s broadband and voice operations.

The deal is to cost Tiscali £210 million and includes brands such as Nildram, Freedom2Surf and Toucan.  Tiscali will gain over half a million broadband customers in the UK.

However, Pipex also has a large hosting and domain name business which is yet to see a buyer.  Chairman Peter Duben had hoped to sell off the entire business.

Many large ISPs were interested in buying Pipex, including BT and Carphone Warehouse, but many pulled out due to the complexities and costs involved in integrating Pipex’s broadband base into their own business.

As well as offering cheap broadband bundles to keep up with rivals such as Carphone Warehouse, Tiscali launched a digital TV service earlier this year that works through a set-top box and uses a Tiscali broadband connection.