Sugar sells Amstrad to BSkyB

Sir Alan Sugar has agreed to sell his Amstrad set-top box manufacturing business in a £125 million deal with broadcaster BSkyB.

The Amstrad chief executive and chairman, who is majority shareholder, said he could not "imagine a better home" for the business. The proposal still requires the approval of the company's remaining shareholders.

Sir Alan's firm supplied around 30 per cent of the set-top boxes purchased by Sky in the year to June 30.

He said: "I turned 60 this year, I've done 40 years of hustling in this business. I have to start thinking about my team of loyal staff, many of whom have been around me for a very long time."

He said he did not think he was "letting go" of the Amstrad name by selling the firm.

Sir Alan said: "There's a certain culture there that will exist. It's not a case of letting it go, it's a case of moving the company on to something more positive."

He added: "The good news for my employees is that they've now got a secure future with great opportunities. The bad news is that I'm still going to be around for a while, so nothing changes at Amstrad."

Alan Michael Sugar TRADing - was founded as an electrical goods company in 1968 by Sir Alan, who these days is famous as the tough-talking star of reality TV show The Apprentice.

It listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1980 and launched the first mass market home computer package in the mid-1980s.

Amstrad was the founder supplier to Sky TV when the service launched in 1988. More recently, the company launched the E3 videophone, following on from the E-mailer, which allowed email, internet, pictures and video calls.

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