Vodafone has announced plans to acquire German cable TV and telephone business Kabel Deutschland in a deal worth £6.6 billion. The plans have been welcomed by the management of Kabel Deutschland, which is expected to recommend that shareholders accept the offer.
If the acquisition takes place, Vodafone will end up with around 32.4 million mobile customers, 5 million broadband customers and 7.6 million TV customers in Germany. It would move its own German fixed-line broadband customers to Kabel Deutschland’s cable network where possible and would use Kabel Deutschland’s network to connect its base stations.
Kabel Deutschland’s management would be responsible for the combined consumer fixed-line business throughout Germany.
Vittorio Colao, Vodafone’s CEO, said “German consumer and business demand for fast broadband and data services continues to grow substantially as customers increasingly access TV, fixed and mobile broadband services from multiple devices in the home and workplace and on the move. The combination of Vodafone Germany and Kabel Deutschland will greatly enhance our offerings in response to those needs and is consistent with Vodafone's broader strategy of providing unified communications services.”
[Presentation (pdf)]