ISP put up for sale three months after NTL plans for outright acquisition are abandoned
Leading cable operator NTL and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group have put their co-owned ISP Virgin.net up for sale, just three months after NTL pulled-out of negotiations to buy the service provider outright, writes Luke Satchell

NTL, which owns a 49% stake and provides the back-office functionality for the business, and Virgin group, holder of the controlling 51% stake, are believed to have appointed investment bank Lehman Brothers to engineer the sale.

An NTL spokesperson today confirmed that the ISP was indeed up for sale, but stressed that negotiations would be left to majority shareholder the Virgin. In the meantime, she said that NTL 'would continue to provide the back-office function for the business going forward.'

Negotiations for NTL to take full control of Virgin.net were completed in July last year, but the cable company pulled out of the deal three months ago after confidence in the ISP waned. At the time the business was valued at£240m.

European online players T-Online , Tiscali and Wannadoo have been touted as possible buyers.

A spokesperson for Virgin.net declined to comment this morning.