Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
The debt-strained TalkTalk Group just can’t catch a break. A new report emerged last night that claimed Octopus Investments were no longer in exclusive talks over the acquisition of TalkTalk’s wholesale broadband business – PlatformX Communications. The move came only days after both issued a joint statement to say they were “optimistic of delivering” a deal.
The development also followed shortly after TalkTalk’s separate attempt to sell their consumer broadband business to Opus Broadband, which was previously reported to have been working alongside investment firm Alchemy Partners on a potential c.£250m bid, appeared to fail. Instead existing investor Ares Management and TalkTalk founder, Sir Charles Dunstone, now seem likely to take long-term ownership of the consumer business.
One key difficulty here is that TalkTalk’s consumer business is strongly linked to PXC’s wholesale products, thus any deal for one side of the business or the other would require some agreement on how that relationship continues into the future.