Tiscali - the Italian telco that can't resist gobbling up European ISPs - is to swallow another one.

This time it's agreed to buy surfEU - a pan-European ISP and portal that has a strong German presence - for E69.6 million (£43.43 million) in cash and shares.

Tiscali said it would cough up around E18.7 million (£11.67 million) in cash and the rest in paper.

SurfEU operates in Austria, Germany, Finland and Switzerland.

According to Tiscali, the acquisition will make it the third biggest ISP in Germany with around 1.8 million users (behind Deutsche Telecom's T-Online and AOL) while consolidating its position as Europe's second largest ISP behind the German operator. Which is nice. ®