Tiscali acquires npower telephony business

Cagliari/London, 4th September 2003  - Tiscali today announces that it has acquired, through its UK subsidiary, npower's consumer telephony business in the UK for a price between £6 million and £7 million. The final amount, to be paid in cash instalments by December 2003, will be finalised upon completion of the customer migration process.

The deal strengthens Tiscali's UK telephony business with the acquisition of npower's database of up to 200,000 active telephony customers, a business that Tiscali expects will generate revenues in excess of £25 million a year, before synergies.

npower, one of the UK's largest energy and utility suppliers to domestic and business customers, currently provides discounted local, national and international telephone services. The company is moving out of telecoms to focus on its core products of gas, electricity and related services.

The npower customers will be migrated and Tiscali will take over customer service and support once the migration process is complete.

Sergio Cellini CEO of Tiscali UK says: "This was a very good proposition for Tiscali because telephony is one of our core businesses and we will be able to provide these customers with excellent choice and support for their voice telephone services as well as offering attractive and competitive dial-up and broadband Internet services."

This acquisition is in line with Tiscali's strategy to further grow its ISP and telephony services in the UK.