BSkyB agrees £125m Amstrad purchase

Source: Stock Market Digital

Date :31/07/2007 08:57:28

British pay-TV firm BSkyB has agreed to buy Alan Sugar’s consumer electronics firm Amstrad for £125 million ($253 million) in cash.

BSkyB today announced that it was offering a 23.7 percent premium to Amstrad's closing share price on Monday, and that it was buying a company which currently supplies around 30 percent of its set-top boxes.

Orders from the broadcaster made up about 75 percent of Amstrad's sales in the year to the end of June.

BSkyB said the deal would give it greater control over product design and technical specifications and allow it to accelerate the development of new products and reduce procurement costs.

The 150-pence-a-share deal will net around £34.5 million for Sugar, who founded Amstrad in 1968. He recently raised his profile with the BBC's TV reality show "The Apprentice."

The deal is also expected to boost earnings this financial year, BSkyB said in a statement.

It said Sugar, currently chairman and chief executive of Amstrad, would continue to lead the business as part of BSkyB.

July 31 2007