BT swoops for £5m Scoot

BT has bought directory outfit Scoot for £5m just a year after selling its own business directory operation Yell for £2.1bn.

The move coincides with the expiry of a one-year undertaking from BT that it would not launch services that compete with Yell.

BT said the purchase would form part of its retail group, which already owns services such as 192 and international directory enquiries. Its agreement not to compete with Yell ran out on the 22 June, thus allowing it to move forward with the long-rumoured purchase of Scoot.

As well as £5m in cash, BT has also agreed to take on board £3m in debt from the ailing firm.

Rival Yell, which runs the Yellow Pages and a number of other directories businesses in the US, is due for a multi-billion pound flotation in July. A spokesman for BT today denied the Scoot purchase had been completed as a spoiler to the float.

He said: "Scoot is a decent company and we got a decent price."

He refused to say whether the purchase would mean consumers could expect to see paper Scoot directories at some point in the future.

BT said most of Scoot's 300 employees to be transferred over to BT.