The Italian Internet access provider TISCALI will acquire the German company PLANET-INTERKOM, specialised in Internet services with 685,000 customers, from VIAG INTERKOM (BRITISH TELECOM group). The Italian will pay VIAG a total of EUR 15 million in cash and hand over 4,141,758 newly issued TISCALI shares, allowing VIAG INTERKOM to hold 1.2% of its capital. The total value of the operation is EUR 77.1 million. Following this operation, TISCALI will become the fourth largest Internet access provider with more than 1.2 million customers.