San Francisco (InfoWorld) - In a move to expand into terrestrial broadband services, British Sky Broadcasting Group (BskyB) has agreed to acquire broadband Internet provider Easynet Group.
Under the deal announced on Friday, the British satellite TV broadcaster will pay £211 million ($374 million) for Easynet, one of the larger ISPs in the U.K. The deal will allow BskyB to offer customers new "triple-play" services that bundle telephony, high-speed Internet access, and TV, the company said. BskyB will enter the triple-play ring with other ISPs, incumbent BT Group, and the newly merged cable operators NTL and Telewest Global. The number of U.K. broadband connections increased 86 percent to 8.1 million from 4.4 million in the 12-month period ending June 30, according to BskyB. To support local customer access, Easynet has its own equipment currently installed in 232 local exchanges.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20051021/tc_infoworld/58326;_ylt=ArGSaZ0FQNJRoV3K2dv9_4kjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
Under the deal announced on Friday, the British satellite TV broadcaster will pay £211 million ($374 million) for Easynet, one of the larger ISPs in the U.K. The deal will allow BskyB to offer customers new "triple-play" services that bundle telephony, high-speed Internet access, and TV, the company said. BskyB will enter the triple-play ring with other ISPs, incumbent BT Group, and the newly merged cable operators NTL and Telewest Global. The number of U.K. broadband connections increased 86 percent to 8.1 million from 4.4 million in the 12-month period ending June 30, according to BskyB. To support local customer access, Easynet has its own equipment currently installed in 232 local exchanges.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20051021/tc_infoworld/58326;_ylt=ArGSaZ0FQNJRoV3K2dv9_4kjtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
