Internet : The Italian Tiscali buys out Liberty Surf

The rumor of a buyout by Tiscali of the Internet Service provider Liberty Surf, owner of the start-up of Sophia, Respublica was spreading again at the end of the week. The suspense ended at the end of the morning this monday January 8th 2001 : Tiscali announced during a press conference in Paris the buyout of the two main Liberty Surf's shareholders, Bernard Arnault's investment fund, Europ@web and the English Kingfisher.

The new offer which was accepted is however less interesting than the one made during the previous negotiations in October 2000. Liberty Surf's security was worth 45.6 euros whereas today the transaction is made on the basis of 9.83 euros (the security listed in March with a value of 41 euros had risen to 79 euros). Tiscali who had bought at the end of last year another service provider, a Dutch one this time, World on line, is now becoming the third European operator with nearly 10 million users.

The quoting of Liberty Surf's security was suspended for a while but went down again after the announcement of the buyout : 7.43 points down at 6.48 euros on Monday at the beginning of the afternoon at Paris Stock Exchange.