Tiscali has written up a wish list of companies it would like to sell itself to, and Carphone Warehouse has not made the cut.

The Italian ISP held a board meeting yesterday and drew up a list of would-be bidders, but CPW was dropped because its offer was considered too low. Tiscali's market cap is just over €1.4bn and CPW last week offered £550m (€694m). Tiscali shares fell 3.5 per cent in early trading today.

The list was drawn up during a four-hour board meeting yesterday. The board is prepared to open up Tiscali's books to six of the seven bidders and hopes to have a deal done as early as next month, according to the FT.

Mario Rosso, Tiscali’s chief executive, told the paper: “Until now, the process has been going exactly as expected. In the definition of the shortlist, we have not considered those who did not realise the industrial value of the group.”

Anonymous sources said CPW's only chance of getting back on the short list was to raise its offer. Such negotiating by media briefing may bring CPW back to the table, or it may decide to take its £1bn windfall from Best Buy somewhere else instead.

The list is believed to include Vodafone and BSkyB.

A spokeswoman for Tiscali told us the company would not comment on speculation. ®

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