In a statement to the ASX, SP Telemedia (ASX:SOT) said it will acquire PIPE Networks (ASX:PWK) for $6.30 per share and valued the latter's assets at approximately $373 million; a premium of 15 per cent on the company's volume weighted average price over the past three months.

The deal is subject to the approval of authorities in Australia and the US, and PIPE's shareholders, which will be sought at a meeting likely to be held in March with the deal expected to be finalised by early April.

The announcement has created a wave of comment in the industry with many raising questions over how the operation will be run as SP Telemedia – which after a merger with TPG Holdings in 2008 has the retail brands of Soul and TPG – will gain access to wholesale assets.

However, Layer 10 founder, Paul Brooks, pointed out the deal was far from completed and its operational structure not likely to be known for some weeks or months.

"It is too early to tell yet. Nobody knows what SPT might do with the assets," Brooks told Computerworld. "Nobody knows how much of the existing organisation will be retained for running the business. They may run it as a separate stand alone business and just use the relationship to get very good rates for SPT. It is just far too early to tell and we can speculate all we like. But PIPE will tell us what we need to know in due course in their own good time."