BSkyB Closes in on Amstrad

BSkyB is planning to spend 125 million British pounds ($253.0 million) to acquire British set-top box vendor Amstrad, BSkyB announced July 31.

The direct-to-home operator said that its wholly owned subsidiary, Sky Digital Supplies, has made a cash offer which has been recommended by the board of directors of Amstrad. BSkyB already has acceptances representing close to 45 percent of Amstrad’s shares.

BSkyB believes the acquisition will bring it a number of benefits going forward such as, an in-house design and development capability, an ability to accelerate the development of new and more innovative products for customers, greater control over product design and technical specification and enhanced flexibility to deliver continual improvement in product quality. BSkyB also expects to realize a significant reduction in procurement costs within its supply chain as margin currently generated by Amstrad on the supply of equipment to the Sky Group will be retained within the Sky business.