Negotiations are being handled by Tiscali's advisers JP Morgan and Banca IMI after the company put itself up for sale in May. It had been expecting a valuation closer to £600m, but the auction for the British arm of the internet supplier has taken longer than expected, significantly overrunning the company's own self-imposed end-of-June deadline.
Other initially interested parties have already walked away from the table, including BT, Vodaphone and BSkyB, during a summer that has seen the company lose 37,000 customers and its share price fall by 46%.
After a £1.1bn deal in May, The Carphone Warehouse paid off its debts by selling half its retail division to Best Buy of America. It currently has 2.8 million broadband customers; adding Tiscali would allow it to leapfrog BT to become the top supplier in the UK.
United Kingdom
The Carphone Warehouse drops Tiscali bid by £150m
LONDON - The Carphone Warehouse has bid £150m less for Tiscali than anticipated today, in a deal which values the broadband company at less than £450m.
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