Tiscali cosying up to HomeChoice?

Italian ISP Tiscali is rumoured to be planning to merge its UK operations with TV, broadband and telephony player HomeChoice.

If the deal goes ahead HomeChoice, which is majority held by Video Networks owner and Microsoft millionaire Chris Larson, could be valued at over £100m.

Rumours of a sale of HomeChoice have been floating around since early this year as competition in the sector has grown increasingly intense due to the introduction of multi-play offerings.

While companies like BT and the newly merged NTL/Telewest/Virgin Mobile have IPTV, broadband and fixed and mobile telephony in the works, Tiscali by comparison has only broadband on offer. Merging with a player like HomeChoice would better equip the Italian firm to compete in the market.