Sky buys O2 and BE Broadband, now UK's second biggest ISP
Big broadband news coming out of the Sky stable today. They’ve just bought both O2 and BE Broadband for the actually-quite-reasonable sum of £200 million, boosting their subscriber base up to 4.7 million homes. That make’s them the second-biggest ISP in the UK now, with 200,000 users more than Virgin Media, but still trailing behind BT’s 6.6 million customers.
Sky until now had been merely a middling broadband player, but this move is quite the conscious effort to push them into the big leagues, in a deal that’s pretty much pocket money for the entertainment empire anyway.
As for O2 parent company Telefónica, it looks as though they’re looking to trim some fat after the costly UK 4G auction ahead of the superfast network’s roll-out.
O2 and BE Broadband’s current customers shouldn’t be too concerned. Sky’s broadband satisfaction rankings solid, so few if any should see any major changes to their service.
