TalkTalk Grabs Blinkbox from Tesco For £5m

TalkTalk has snapped up Blinkbox from Tesco for the asking price of £5 million.

The transaction will be a cash one, unsurprisingly at that level, and means that Tesco will be rid of a service which it couldn’t get to make a profit.

As part of the deal, TalkTalk has also picked up Tesco’s broadband and phone user base, which amounts to around 75,000 and 20,000 customers respectively. Customers will be transferred over to the TalkTalk network in the “coming months”, the company said.

As for Blinkbox, TalkTalk notes that it will integrate the video service with its current TV offerings immediately, with revenue synergies expected to make an impact from the end of this year.

Adrian Letts, the co-founder and CEO of Blinkbox, is set to join TalkTalk as Managing Director for TV, and will report to Tristia Harrison, the MD of the consumer side of TalkTalk’s business.

TalkTalk TV now has in excess of 1.2 million customers, and the hope is that Blinkbox will help to accelerate that number.

Dido Harding, CEO of TalkTalk, commented: “We are excited about the opportunity that Blinkbox’s platform and technology expertise bring, and which will significantly accelerate the development of our TV platform.”

She added: “The purchase of Tesco’s broadband base is another example of TalkTalk leveraging its national network to grow faster. We are excited about the future of quad-play – fixed phone and broadband, TV and mobile – and this acquisition will help to further drive home our value for money advantage.”