The Carphone Warehouse has bought Tele2 UK Communications and Tele2 Telecommunications Services (Ireland) for £8.5m sterling.
The two are holding companies for Tele2 AB's UK and Irish carrier pre-select (CPS) operations
Swedish telecoms operator Tele2 said it had planned to expand its offering of fixed-line telephony to include broadband Internet access in Ireland and the UK, but that competition was too tough in these markets.
'The way the market for alternative operators in the UK and in Ireland looks today, we can get significantly better returns by reallocating (the) budget to other markets,' CEO Lars-Johan Jarnheimer said in a statement.
As part of today's deal, The Carphone Warehouse said it had also assumed liability for certain cash restructuring costs of about £2m.
Tele2 had approximately 188,000 customers in the UK and 36,000 Irish customers. The Carphone Warehouse said that the deal is consistent with the group's strategy of building its CPS customer base both organically and by selective acquisition.
The Carphone Warehouse said it intends to 'migrate' these customers onto its own network under the TalkTalk brand. It added that the deal is expected to be marginally earnings enhancing in the current financial year.
The Carphone Warehouse also announces this morning that it has exchanged contracts with Centrica to acquire the Onetel group of companies from Centrica, for an initial cash consideration of £132m. Onetel is one of the largest alternative telecoms providers in the UK.
