The European Commission today approved the merger of two leading providers of broadband services in the UK.
The Commission said the merger of Carphone Warehouse and Tiscali UK would not significantly affect competition on the single market.
It said in a statement that “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”.
Carphone Warehouse is currently UK's third largest broadband provider with approximately 2.8 million subscribers. Tiscali UK has around 1.4 million. The deal will make Carphone Warehouse the largest provider of residential broadband in the UK, with more than a quarter of the market. Carphone Warehouse will pay £236 million (€278.44m) to acquire Tiscali UK.
The Commission said that the merged company “will become one of main competitors to the incumbent operator BT”.
Go to the Content Tuesday, 9 February 2010
