Thus sells off services for £3.5m

Thus is selling its ClubCall, RaceCall and WeatherCall phone services as part of a £3.5 million disposal.

Mobile media firm iTouch, with headquarters in Dublin, is snapping up the services.

It's also buying the assets of the branded business of thus's interactive content division.

Glasgow-based thus, which is 51%-owned by Scottish Power, has been looking to sell-off the division as it focuses on building sales of phone and internet services to the corporate sector.

The group, which owns the internet service provider Demon, counts BSkyB, GE Capital and Royal Bank of Scotland among its customer base.

Under today's sale, all staff working in the branded business will move to itouch, which is taking over the lease on the operation's London office.

Thus will continue to market the brands to its customers under a joint sales and marketing agreement with itouch.

This agreement also means itouch's other services, such as text messaging alerts, can now be marketed by thus.

Group chief executive Bill Allan says: "ITouch are extremely well-placed to drive the branded and media sales business forward."

He adds: "The sale reflects our commitment to focus on our core business."