ISP TalkTalk Finish Acquisition of 135,000 SSE Broadband Customers

Low cost ISP TalkTalk, which is home to around 4.2 million UK broadband customers, has today announced the completion of their deal with Ovo Energy to acquire the company’s 135,000 (approx.) SSE Phone & Broadband customers for an undisclosed sum. The move comes after last year’s rescue of Origin Broadband’s base (here).

Ovo originally acquired SSE’s household energy and broadband business for £500m in January 2020 (here) – a deal comprising £400m in cash and £100m in loan notes. But since then, most UK energy providers have been hit by a tsunami of problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic and surging energy prices. Ovo itself recently had to cut around a quarter of its UK workforce (1,700 staff) and is re-focusing on their core energy business.

As part of the agreement, SSE has also given permission to TalkTalk for their brand to be “used under licence” until April 2023 to support a smooth transition.

Tristia Harrison, CEO of TalkTalk Group, said:

“We are delighted that we can finally welcome SSE Phone & Broadband customers and team to the TalkTalk Group. We are the country’s only scale affordable provider and are experts at providing connectivity to home energy customers, so we are confident our new customers and colleagues will find themselves at home with us.”

However, the attention is now likely to shift back to Virgin Media (VMO2), which was previously reported to have made a £3bn bid to acquire TalkTalk’s customers (here) in order to help support their future plans.