Carphone Warehouse has won the auction to buy AOL UK for
£370m, the BBC has reported.
Time Warner’s AOL UK business has been up for auction for some
time and the European operations, including the UK, have been
making widespread redundancies in the face of plunging
revenues.
AOL UK has struggled to carve out a profitable broadband
internet business to replace its rapidly declining dial-up internet
customer base.
Despite this however, AOL UK is still one of the biggest UK
ISPs, with an estimated 1.5m broadband customers and 600,000
dial-up customers.
Carphone Warehouse moved into the broadband market earlier this
year, offering a free broadband service to customers who signed up
for its TalkTalk phone service.
The free broadband model has been followed by Orange, which is
giving away broadband to customers who sign up to certain mobile
phone packages.
Sky is also offering free broadband to customers who buy its
satellite TV packages.
The BBC reports however, that Carphone Warehouse will continue
charging AOL customers for their broadband and dial-up
connections.
No formal statements have so far been made by AOL or Carphone
Warehouse on the acquisition.