Member Article

BSkyB acquires Telefónica UK broadband for £180m

British Broadcaster BSkyB has acquired the broadband section of Spanish firm Telefónica’s UK business.

The transaction was announced on Friday morning’s stock exchange for a consideration of £180m for Telefónica’s consumer broadband, home phone and line rental customers served by the o2 and BE brands.

A further £20m could be payable if the bought firm successfully transfers all its customers across by a certain date.

BSkyB is partially owned by media giant News Corporation, who bought a 40% stake in June last year.

Telefónica’s half a million customers will become Sky customers on completion of the deal, which the buyer said will make it the fastest growing broadband and telephony business in the UK.

Sky started providing telecommunication services after it entered the market six years ago, and now has 4.2m broadband customers and 4m telephony customers.

Jeremy Darroch, Sky’s chief executive, said: “Sky has been the UK’s fastest-growing broadband and telephony provider since we entered the market six years ago.

“From a standing start in 2006, we have added more than 4.2 million broadband customers. The acquisition of Telefónica UK’s consumer broadband and fixed-line telephony business will help us accelerate this growth.

“We believe that the O2 and BE consumer broadband and telephony business is a great fit, with customers used to high-quality products and strong levels of customer service.

“We look forward to welcoming these new customers to Sky and giving them access to our wide range of high-quality products, great value and industry-leading customer service.”

Chief executive of Telefónica UK, Ronan Dunne, added: “Sky offers great value, totally unlimited broadband which includes unlimited fibre services.

“As we focus on delivering best-in-class mobile connectivity, including next generation (4G) services, we believe this agreement is the best way of helping our customers get the highest quality home broadband experience from a leading organisation in the market.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .