Swisscom has revealed that its Italian subsidiary, FastWeb, has sold its 4.5% stake in FiberCop to Optics BidCo, a subsidiary of KKR, for €439 million. FiberCop, formed in 2021 by Telecom Italia (TIM), KKR, and FastWeb, manages the ‘last mile’ fibre network, connecting homes to street cabinets.
Telecom Italia (TIM) has inked a deal with the Italian branch of Xavier Niel’s Iliad to co-invest in TIM’s last-mile grid firm FiberCop in order to accelerate the deployment of fiber broadband lines in Italy. Under the terms of the agreement with TIM, Iliad will co-invest in FiberCop to assist in the development of the network that connects street cabinets to people’s houses. Iliad will receive access to Telecom Italia’s core fiber network, allowing it to provide ultrafast fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) connections to clients. According to TIM, the agreement validated FiberCop’s investment strategy, which aims to link 75 percent of Italy’s so-called grey and black zones, including cities and industrial districts, with FTTH connections at speeds of more than 1 gigabyte per second by 2025. The agreement’s financial terms were not disclosed. According to analysts, the FiberCop agreement might help TIM counter some of the heightened competitive pressure…
Telecom Italia (TIM) celebrates the successful sale of its fixed-line grid to the Optics BidCo consortium, led by investment firm KKR. This strategic move aims to reduce TIM’s significant net financial debt and marks a first in major European telecom history.
TIM, Italy’s primary telecommunications provider, has confirmed the completion date for the sale of its networks business. In a recent stock market filing, TIM announced that the deal with private equity firm KKR will close on July 1, as planned.
TIM enters exclusive negotiations with KKR for its network assets sale, navigating regulatory hurdles and Vivendi’s opposition. Will the deal reach a successful conclusion?
TIM explores offers for its Enterprise business, valuing the unit at over €6 billion, while the board evaluates bids for network assets. With the company’s gross financial debt nearing €32 billion, maximizing value is crucial. KKR emerges as a frontrunner, as anticipation builds for exclusive discussions lasting until late August or early September.
Spain’s Telefónica has announced that it will sell a portion of its rural fiber network to a group led by France’s Credit Agricole and Vauban for roughly 1 billion euros. According to a statement released by Telefónica, the financial group and the investment firm will buy a 45 percent stake in Bluevia, a provider of rural fiber, with a total valuation of 2.5 billion euros. Telefónica also stated that it anticipates the deal to be finalized by year’s end, subject to regulatory approvals. Bluevia is a platform for managing and deploying fiber networks in underserved rural parts of Spain in collaboration with networks administered by third-party operators. The transaction takes place less than a month after Telefónica established their dedicated neutral wholesale FTTH provider, which is primarily focused on connecting areas comprising Spain’s lowest population densities. As a neutral wholesaler, Bluevia will establish a fiber network in…
Orange and MasMovil in talks about joint venture Orange and MasMovil have stated that they are in talks to launch a 50:50 joint venture (JV) in Spain. Orange’s Spanish subsidiary is valued at €8.1 billion, while MasMovil is valued at €11.5 billion, for a total enterprise value of €19.6 billion. The merged operator would include around 7.1 million fixed line customers and 20.2 million mobile users, with a combined FTTH network of approximately 16 million residences. The operators claim that the combination would result in a slew of meaningful synergies of more than €450 million within three years of the merger closing. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y5d9h3y7 Google acquires Mandiant to boost its cloud offering In a move aimed at bolstering the capabilities of its Google Cloud platform, Google has agreed to pay $5.4 billion for the cybersecurity firm Mandiant. To address harmful information and software vulnerabilities, Google Cloud currently offers…
The Italian telecoms operator TIM is evaluating the US investment group’s KKR expression of interest in acquiring the full capital stake of the company, a potential 11 billion euro transaction. The proposal was lodged by the US investment fund at a price of €0.505 per share, a 45.7 percent premium over the share’s closing price on Friday. TIM described KKR’s expression of interest as “friendly,” with the goal of securing approval from TIM’s board and management. Telecom Italia said its board of directors met and addressed the fund’s interest in initiating a prospective public tender, which is subject to a four-week period of due diligence and clearance from the Italian government, that has veto power over the group’s purchase. Although TIM is a private corporation, because it is considered a strategic asset for Italy, the Italian government has the right to decline any purchase that it believes would…
T-Mobile US is experimenting with fiber broadband by launching a symmetrical gigabit fiber service in New York City. The service is offered for a fixed monthly fee, but the prices have not yet been announced. This service, which offers 940Mbps upload and download rates as well as a WiFi 6 router, is now being tested in selected Manhattan apartment buildings. The company is undertaking a very restricted trial with a third-party supplier to offer residential internet using fiber-optic lines from that partner rather than deploying its own lines. T-Mobile did not reveal the identity of its local partner. The decision to collaborate with a local broadband provider is consistent with T-Mobile’s well-known practice of leasing rather than constructing fiber for its cell sites. Because T-Mobile is not installing new fiber connections but rather utilizing those that are already in place, initial expenses are kept low, and T-Mobile is…
