Tiscali SpA, the Sardinia-based Internet Service Provider, has agreed to buy the Spanish ISP Inicia SA for 8.2 million euros (U.S. $7.1 million) from Grupo Prisa, Spain's largest media group, Tiscali announced Tuesday.
Inicia has 300,000 subscribers, 82,000 of them active, and carries value-added services and content from Prisa on its portal, http://www.inicia.com, the Italian company said in a prepared statement. Tiscali and Prisa have also agreed to enter a long term strategic partnership under which Prisa commits to contracting Tiscali to manage its B2B and telecommunication services, becoming one of Tiscali's most important clients, the statement said.
Under the agreement Prisa will provide content for Tiscali's Spanish portal, while Tiscali undertakes to buy advertising on Prisa's media network over the next five years, Tiscali said. "This strategic agreement, combined with major product launch activities planned for the end of the year, puts Tiscali well on track toward its objective of becoming the number three ISP player in Spain, as well as breaking even on an EBITDA level over the upcoming months," it said.
Tiscali, which claims to have approximately 7 million active subscribers in Europe, launched its Tiscalinet portal in Spain earlier this year and has recently purchased ISPs in Britain, France and Germany.
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