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Vodafone gets its German fix |
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Tuesday, 20 May 2008 |
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Mobile giant consolidates ownership of German fixed-line carrier.
Vodafone yesterday completed the €474mn purchase of Arcor, the German fixed-line alternative carrier. It has acquired a 26.4% stake from erstwhile partners Deutsche Bahn (the railway company) and Deutsche Bank, taking its ownership position to 100%.
It’s a sign of the times. Vodafone acquired its interest in Arcor as part of its massive takeover of Mannesmann back in 2000. At the time, it looked like an anomaly in view of Vodafone’s ‘pure play’ wireless vision. Fast forward to today and Arcor, whose customer base includes 2.6mn DSL users (14% of the German broadband market), fits into the company’s ‘total communications’ strategy.
“By taking full control of Arcor and aligning it more closely with Vodafone Germany we will leverage the greater scale this presents, and generate synergies and substantial time to market benefits within Europe’s largest telecommunications market”, noted Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin.
Follow that logic through and Vodafone may yet emerge as a key player in the current wave of fixed-line consolidation in Europe.
Jim Chalmers
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