Today Sky announced (March 1) a deal with Telefónica UK, owner of the O2 mobile brand, to acquire its consumer broadband and fixed-line telephony business in a deal worth up to £200 million.
The acquisition of around half a million consumer broadband and phone customers served by the O2 and BE brands will make Sky the second largest provider in the UK broadband market.
Sky will pay £180 million to Telefónica UK for the consumer broadband, home phone and line rental customers. These customers will move to Sky for their services on completion of the transaction.
An additional amount, not exceeding £20m, will be payable by Sky depending upon “the successful delivery and completion of the customer migration process by Telefónica UK”. Since entering the home communications market six year ago with the acquisition of EasyNet, Sky has built a business with 4.2m broadband customers and 4m telephony subscribers, as of December 31, 2012.
The company also has 3.6m triple-play customers, who take broadband, pay-television and home phone from the company.
