MADRID, Spain-Spain’s Telefonica has finally added Mexico to its Latin American footprint with the acquisition of Motorola’s Mexican mobile-phone assets. The $2.5 billion acquisition is also an important stepping stone for the pending listing of Telefonica’s mobile subsidiary, Telefonica Moviles, in Spain and on the New York Stock Exchange and adds overall value to the company.
The acquisition includes Motorola’s shares in the four northern wireless carriers under the Protel name. The carriers are Baja Celular, Cedetel, Movitel, Norcel and Portatel del Sureste with a combined subscriber base of around 1.3 million subscribers.
Motorola recently announced plans to list Propel, a holding company including its international wireless carrier companies. Motorola did not say how the Telefonica acquisition might affect Propel’s initial public offering.
