Kingston Communications - the telco that operates from a BT-surrounded enclave in Hull - is the latest outfit to receive a bid approach.

In a statement today the company confirmed that "has received an approach that may or may not lead to an offer for Kingston Communications.

"The approach contains a number of conditions and pre-conditions which are being considered by the Board.

"The Directors emphasise that these discussions are conceptual in nature and that there can be no certainty that they will lead to any definitive agreement concerning any transaction," it said.

News that Kingston could be acquired follows hot on the heels of Cable & Wireless' (C&W) acquisition of Energis and Sky's £211m bid for Easynet. Kingston operates in East Yorkshire but also has national reach via its Affiniti communications integrator business and broadband ISP Eclipse.

Separately, a report out today by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicts that large-scale mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the tech sector look set to continue.

Heralding the "return of the mega deal", PwC reported: "Despite deal volumes remaining relatively stable, the value of M&A deals in the technology sector has risen by 112% to €81billion in the first nine months of 2005." ®

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• Kingston: nobody else wants to provide broadband round here (11 September 2007)
• Kingston buys Smart421 (29 September 2006)
• Kingston Comms takeover talks end (31 March 2006)
• Kingston schtum on bid approach (29 November 2005)
• Eclipse sorry for broadband downtime (24 November 2005)
• Eclipse getting back to normal (23 November 2005)
• Eclipse broadband no longer titsup (22 November 2005)
• $11.5bn bid for TDC (18 November 2005)
• C&W absorbs Energis (11 November 2005)
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• C&W continues LLU investment despite ISP woes (8 November 2005)
• Potential suitor courts Eircom (3 November 2005)
• Telefonica grabs O2 from under T-Mobile's nose (31 October 2005)
• Spain's Telefonica to buy O2 (31 October 2005)
• OFT OKs C&W's Energis buy (25 October 2005)
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