KPN Telecom is said to be in discussions with Spain’s Telefonica regarding a possible US$54 billion merger. At press time, international reports said the companies had agreed in principle to a deal that would evenly split control of the two entities. Such a merger would be the first between two former European telecommunications monopolies.
A planner merger between Sweden’s Telia and Norway’s Telenor was scrapped last year because of a lack of agreement on numerous issues.
KPN postponed an initial public offering of its KPN Mobile subsidiary in late April, reportedly due to talks with several companies regarding a possible merger or alliance.
Germany’s Debitel and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo also were mentioned as companies that held talks with KPN regarding an alliance.
KPN has said it is interested in European Universal Mobile Telecommunications System licenses, but would need a partner because of the high costs of the licenses.
In addition, KPN is interested in acquiring Orange, once Vodafone AirTouch divests the U.K. operator. DoCoMo has been named as KPN’s potential partner to purchase Orange.
However, at Global Wireless press time, other large telecom companies had showed interest in the Dutch carrier, and another bid was expected. For their parts, the governments of the Netherlands and Spain have laws in place to block hostile takeovers. The government of the Netherlands owns 44 percent of KPN, and Spain owns a “golden share” of Telefonica.
