Looks like those annoying ads haven’t won over many fans for internet service provider Tiscali. The Italian company now faces a cash crisis after talks to sell its UK business to BSkyB collapsed.
Tiscali has approximately 1.7 million British customers, after it acquired Pipex and Home Choice, the broadband TV company.
Despite these business moves Tiscali UK has been losing customers quarter after quarter.
Trading in its shares was suspended in Milan today after they dropped by 40per cent.
Tiscali initially put its UK arm up for sale last spring. Due to the high price demanded though, bidders including Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse pulled out of the race early, leaving BSkyB as the only company still in the running.
Tiscali had been losing market share to Sky in recent months. At the end of September 2008 Tiscali had 1,774,000 users, down from 1,838,000 in the Summer.
By the end of last year, Sky had 1,955,000 customers, up from 1,792,000 in proceeding quarter.
According to the Guardian, analysts believe that Tiscali maybe forced into a firesale of its businesses in order to ward off a dramatic collapse.
Source: Guardian
2 thoughts on “Tiscali in financial trouble”
I saw that Tiscali was rated as the best broadband/ phoneline package to switch to on last night’s Gadget Show.
Looks like they should have done a bit more homework!
Is it time to leave Tiscali?