BSkyB buys O2 and BE broadband businesses from Telefonica

                                           Sky launched its broadband service in 2006

British Sky Broadcasting is buying the UK broadband and fixed line businesses of Spain's Telefonica.

 It will give Sky half a million customers who use the O2 and BE brands for their home phone or broadband.
It will pay an initial £180m to Telefonica, with up to another £20m being paid once the customers have been switched to Sky.
Sky said the transaction would make it the second biggest UK broadband provider.
Telefonica said the deal would allow it to concentrate on providing better mobile services, including rolling out 4G.

Biggest UK ISPs by subscribers

1. BT retail 6,569,000
2. Virgin Media 4,465,000
3. Sky Broadband 4,235,000
4. TalkTalk 4,053,000
5. EE 693,000
6. O2 560,100

Source: ISP Review

Sky has taken on 4.2 million broadband customers since launching the service in 2006.