KPN buys Dutch Tiscali

The incumbent Dutch telco KPN says that it plans to acquire the Dutch subsidiary of the Italian broadband operator Tiscali for €255 million. The announcement followed the approval of the deal by competition authority NMA. Tiscali and KPN initially agreed upon the sale in September 2006 and it is expected to close next month.

Tiscali currently has 276,000 subscribers to its ADSL service and operates its own ADSL network, which it also sells wholesale to other ISPs.

According to the competition authority, the acquisition will see KPN’s broadband marketshare rise by 5% to nearly 50%. However, KPN claims it will only rise by 4% to 45%. NMA nevertheless doesn’t expect the acquisition will hinder competition as the cable companies and remaining competing ADSL operators Orange, Tele2, and Telecom Italia subsidiary BBned will be able to counterbalance KPN’s might.

KPN previously acquired Cistron, Demon, Speedlinq and the subscriber base of Freeler, HCCnet, and 60,000 Tiscali subscribers using the KPN ADSL network instead of Tiscali’s own network.