Swisscom announced a bid to acquire Fastweb, Italy’s second largest fixed-network operator and leading provider of IP-based services, for EUR 47 per share for a maximum total consideration of EUR 3.7 billion.
Fastweb is Italy’s leading alternative broadband telecommunications provider with more than one million customers, 2006 revenues and EBITDA of respectively EUR 1.26 billion and EUR 424.6 million.
Swisscom said it intends to make a long-term investment and to further strengthen the competitive position of Fastweb based on a new generation network and innovative offerings in Italy. By acquiring Fastweb, Swisscom will be able to boost its cash flows significantly. Fastweb is a high-growth company with an increasing free cash flow over time. The transaction has the potential to boost Swisscom’s revenues and EBITDA by about one fifth, and generate further growth thereafter.
Swisscom also said that it would learn from the experience acquired by Fastweb in operating a fully IP-based, latest-generation broadband network, expanding and commercializing optical networks, and developing and marketing broadband-based multimedia services. In return, Swisscom will support Fastweb’ plans to position itself in Italy as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO).
http://www.swisscom.com
- In November 2006, Swisscom officially launched its Bluewin IPTV service, offering 100-plus television channels, 70-plus radio channels, live sports coverage and an initial VOD library of 500-plus films. Bluewin is delivered over either an ADSL or VDSL connection. Customers in areas which do not yet provide VDSL access can have only one TV channel transmitted at a time. The set-top box functions as a PVR and provides over 100 hours of recording capacity. Bluewin is using # Microsoft’s IPTV software, HP servers, Tandberg encoders (VC-1 encoding) and Linksys CPE, including set-top boxes.
