back to article UK ISP TalkTalk confirms it will MullMull go-private takeover offer valuing it at £1.1bn

UK ISP TalkTalk has confirmed it is considering a takeover offer from Toscafund Asset Management that values the broadband and TV provider at £1.1bn. Toscafund Asset Management, which already owns 30.5 per cent of TalkTalk, is aiming to pay 97 pence per share. That's a premium of 13.5 pence on the previous day's closing price …

  1. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    Buying TalkTalk must be asking for paying to have a swim in a septic tank.

    1. Steve Foster
      Facepalm

      As Toscafund already own almost 1/3 of TalkTalk, they're obviously figuring that they can't really get any dirtier...

  2. Steve Foster

    Virgin/O2 Combo

    "Back in May, Liberty Global and Telefónica said they would merge their respective UK telecoms businesses, Virgin Media and O2"

    The UK's Competition & Markets Authority wants to investigate this, though (it's applied to take it off the EU equivalent, as it's currently under that body's purview), so it might not happen.

  3. IGotOut Silver badge

    Well the service couldn't get any worse..

    ...could it?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Well the service couldn't get any worse..

      The service is great. Cheap, 80/20 24/7, no slowdowns or outages in years.

      I pay for the pipe. If that's 100%, what more do I need?

      * customer service is crap though!

  4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    They probably think they can increase profits by shaving a bit off the running costs.

    1. Andy Non Silver badge
      Coat

      They certainly don't need that complicated security stuff, get rid of it.

      1. Insert sadsack pun here

        If only there were some kind of well-connected person they could hire as new CEO, maybe someone who's just delivered a major success in the public sector and has a positive image on the market?

  5. Zimmer
    Coat

    On a slightly different tack..

    "Consolidation allows providers to increase their subscriber base, but also add additional product lines – and cost "efficiencies", as they euphemistically call them".

    Having privatised BT to break its monopoly and provide competition for the benefit of the consumer it looks like we could be heading for a private monopoly in the telecoms sector, possibly preceded by a powerful private cartel... .

    Cynical? Moi? The coat? It's the hoodie with built-in face mask and tinfoil lining...

    1. katrinab Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: On a slightly different tack..

      Look across the pond at AT&T, which was broken up into the Baby Bells, and the reassembled itself.

      1. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: On a slightly different tack..

        reassembled itself without the pesky universal service obligations from those 1930s antitrust settlements and in such a way that the FTC can't step in again

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All you need to ask is

    How much DEBT will the new company be saddled with. Vulture (sorry El Reg) Capital companies live by putting debt on the companies they infect with VD (Venture Debt) disease.

    They are runining businesses big time.

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: All you need to ask is

      I think you meant

      Ruining

      But yes. Debt of all kinds is a killer. How much debt has CV-19 added to the worlds top 20 economies? Lots and lots and lots and it will all need to be paid back at some time. Who by? Us normal paople of course.

      1. Muscleguy

        Re: All you need to ask is

        It is not debt. They all printed money. Which would normally depress the currency. Except everybody has done it so everybody’s currencies deflated in concert leaving the relative values at worst slightly different.

        Note euro zone countries had to do it differently. How did the Euro central bank come up with the funds? it printed the money. It was just an internal distribution problem.

  7. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    Perhaps they could bring back good old Dildo to run it as well. After fucking up TalkTalk once, and that monumental public fuckup being the qualification for her to publicy fuckup the Track and Trace fiasco - I can think of no-one more qualified to run the remains of the business into the ground once and for all.

    1. TimMaher Silver badge
      Trollface

      Alternatively...

      I was going to suggest that the VCs made the offer for the remaining two thirds now that Dildo has left.

      Or they used Excel and the losses didn’t get onto the bottom line.

    2. Keith Oborn

      A pity

      I did some work there around the time that Dido went. I got the distinct impression of a bunch of good people who were very worried about any other security issues, and really wanted to do a good job. They were worthy of encouragement.

      I bet this deal will go the usual way, private finance extracts their pound of flesh and the company is hung out to dry.

      It may depend on Dunstone's attitude: he's not the nicest person, but I got the impression that he actually gives a damn about this baby.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: A pity

        He doesnt give a damn, except money. The very reason he de-merged TT from Carphone Warehouse, hoping to cash up from this retail arm, because consolidation was the happening thing in Telecoms. ( Three wanted to buy O2 to use their infra for 5G, VodaCON looking for landline partners for home BB, VirginMedia shuffling in their shoes (now with O2), BT takeover of EE, 5G on the horizon etc)

        Unfortunately, the markets have tanked and he might just have to lick it, else hold out for another 2 years at least to achieve last year's offer price.

        Consumers will suffer due to this VC takeovers with inevitable price rises.

        BT alread has announced price rises, which trickle down to other Openreach networks. Why the F*** should we pay for shitty footballers' indulgences and fancy haircuts?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Just imagine what you could achieve by employing out if work and other card politicians.

      Corbyn for CEO, Dildo Hardup for general manager and Diane Abbott as CFO.

      1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

        Nigel Farage as Marketing manager.

    4. katrinab Silver badge
      Trollface

      No, put her in charge of the entire Private Equity fund.

  8. paulf
    Alert

    Company value

    FTA: Analyst Megabuyte said of the potential deal: "Toscafund... has, one assumes, decided to swoop with TalkTalk shares at around all-time lows, and well down on the just over 400p achieved in 2015, and with the company valued at little more than an incumbent telco [BT]." (my emphasis)

    Someone may have to help me out with this one. BT valuation today is £10.5B, and Talk Talk is about a tenth at £1.09B

    Does that mean this big shot analyst is comparing only the nominal share prices, without putting them in the context of the number of shares in issue?

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