The acquisition will give BSkyB full control of Easynet's broadband services, which serve more than 4m homes in the UK. Its footprint is set to extend to 5.8m homes and 850,000 businesses when 100 more internet exchanges are added over the coming year.
Sky said it woulfd benefit from "attractive source of new revenues and new customers" and would expand the existing network through "unbundling additional exchanges".
The deal marks Sky's first step into broadband internet services, allowing the satellite giant to offer broadband, video-on-demand and telephony to compete against the recently merged cable giant NTL/Telewest, currently the UK's leading triple-play company with more than 5m subscribers.
BSkyB chief Executive, James Murdoch, said entertainment is at the core of Sky's success.
"Today's offer reflects the exciting opportunities that now exist to combine quality entertainment with significant high-speed connections.
"Easynet's innovative network and technological expertise perfectly complement Sky's strengths in programming and in making technologies easy to use. We see value for families in moving well beyond just another triple play to offer a new level of connected entertainment and communications services," he added.
According to reports last week, James Murdoch was also considering bidding for OneTel, the telecoms business that Centrica has put up for sale for £300m.
Last week, BSkyB confirmed it had raised just over £1bn by selling a three-part bond, which it said it could use for acquisitions.
Sky is still leading the pay-TV market with 7.8m subscribers and is on track to meet its target of 10m by 2008, but it looks like the gap could close if more customers are attracted by NTL/Telewest's offering.
Broadband and video-on-demand supplier Homechoice and Pipex are also believed to be potential targets.
Lazard and Morgan Stanley handled the Easynet deal on behalf of BSkyB.
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