Italian tycoon buys ex-Communist paper Unita

ROME May 20 (Reuters) - Renato Soru, the founder of Italian broadband operator Tiscali SpA (TIS.MI), has bought ailing former Communist Party newspaper l'Unita, the centre-left Democratic Party said on Tuesday.

Financial details were not disclosed. Soru owns 25 percent of Tiscali and is also governor of the island of Sardinia.

Unita had been the newspaper for the Communist Party before becoming a voice for Italy's centre-left. Elections last month swept Italy's smaller parties, including the Communists, out of parliament and put a centre-right government in power.

"The signing of the contract to buy l'Unita on the part of Renato Soru closes a long phase of financial uncertainty for the newspaper," Democratic Party Secretary Walter Veltroni, who had been l'Unita's editor in the early 1990s, said in a statement.

Tiscali, Italy's third-biggest broadband operator, has itself started a process to sell all or part of its assets and has drafted a shortlist of bidders. (Reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio, writing by Ian Simpson, editing by Will Waterman)