BT announced Monday it had acquired TalkTalk Telecommunications and PlatformX Communications out of the administration of TalkTalk Group on a debt-free basis, after restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal was appointed administrator and sold the consumer and wholesale units the same day. BT put the total cash impact in its current financial year at approximately £400 million, including a £60 million trading loss for the balance of the year and £100 million of revenue otherwise due to its Openreach division. About 900 employees transfer to BT, and the businesses will operate separately and keep competing while the regulatory review runs. TalkTalk reported about £1.2 billion of revenue over the past 12 months but was loss-making.
Hours later, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Lisa Nandy issued a public interest intervention notice on the completed acquisition, citing the existing public health emergency ground and a proposed new ground covering disruption to public services, critical national infrastructure and supply to vulnerable customers. The department warned that a TalkTalk collapse could disrupt emergency calls, hospital communications and medical alarms for 2.5 million customers. The CMA must submit its report by 5pm on October 19 and invited comments from interested parties between October 5 and 9.
Separately, the CMA’s phase 2 inquiry into the anticipated acquisition of Substantial, including Netomnia, Brsk, Brsk ISP and YouFibre, by the nexfibre joint venture of Liberty Global, Telefónica and InfraVia reached its interim report on October 2. The CMA provisionally found competition concerns in the wholesale supply of fixed broadband services. Responses to the interim report are due by 5pm on October 23, ahead of a statutory deadline of December 15.