Tiscali boss hits back at critics of Excite deal

NEWS Tiscali UK boss Sergio Cellini has hit back at analyst criticism of his company's decision to buy up Excite Italia. Yesterday, one anaylst described Tiscali's move to snap up the 30 per cent of the company it didn't already own as "pointless". But today Cellini told silicon.com: "Tiscali has bought 30 per cent of a profitable company. That 30 per cent comes with E4.5m (£2.75) cash in exchange for E3m (£1.8m) in shares& I hope we can have many other 'pointless' acquisitions." Cellini added that the deal for the remaining piece of Excite Italia was worth the effort, as it gives the European ISP control over the organisation's brand and its technology as sole shareholder. Yesterday, Forrester analyst Helen Omwando called the deal an exercise "of little value in turning Tiscali into a pan-European ISP" and Ovum analyst Dario Betti agreed, stating the company had acquired too many ISPs over recent years. Betti said: "Tiscali went on a buying spree of players who weren't necessarily the top players in various countries."