Oi’s board of directors has approved the sale of Portugal Telecom shares to Altice. The transaction is estimated at $9.1 billion and involves the transfer of all shares issued by PT Portugal.
In a statement released on Dec. 8, Oi said it has finalized the formalities to approve the general terms and conditions for the sale of all of the shares of PT Portugal SPGS to Altice Portugal, a wholly owned subsidiary of Altice. The sale involves PT’s operations in Portugal and Hungary. The contract will take effect if approved by PT’s shareholders.
As noted by Bloomberg, the purchase helps bring Altice’s annual sales to more than $18.7 billion.
Before the sale is final, some corporate reorganization will be necessary. PT Portugal’s investments are not part of the deal, including investments in Africatel GmbH & Co. KG, Timor Telecom and Rio Forte Investments, as well as all or part of PT Portugal’s debt.
Oi said in a statement that with this step, the carrier is continuing to reinforce its financial capacity in order to meet its goal of leading the consolidation of the Brazilian telecommunications market.
While a consolidation of Brazil’s market is expected, the question still remains which operator, Oi or TIM, will lead it. TIM’s parent company, Telecom Italia, has said that Brazil is a strategic country, noting that it would not sell its Brazilian unit. Last month, Telecom Italia’s board of directors approved an investigation into potentially integrating its Brazilian unit, TIM, with rival operator Oi.
On the other side, Oi has hired BTG Pactual as its agent to review alternatives to enable a viable proposal for the acquisition of TIM.
Oracle’s CEO on analytics: Digital disruption gives enterprises the ability to provide a different level of services and achieve a better relationship with its customers – and the company that does that will gain market share, according to Mark Hurd, Oracle’s global co-CEO.
Speaking with members of the press in São Paulo, Hurd said that in the telecom industry today, his service provider knows exactly where he is and what he uses, but he hasn’t been contacted by them with an offer of an extra data package, for example. When asked whether carriers are embracing telecom analytics to solve or anticipate customer issues, Hurd said that while it isn’t happening yet, service providers are working on it, and it will only take one carrier to get it right before others follow.
“Carriers have a tremendous amount of data but don’t yet have the ability to translate all that into a different relationship and experience,” he said.
Hurd also commented on Oracle’s business performance in Latin America. Without revealing specific numbers, he said the region is very attractive and that the company has been making investments. Oracle will open a data center in Brazil next year, and Hurd said the company has already doubled its sales force. “No economic downturn here will change our opinion,” he said.
More Latin American news:
PERU – Peru will auction three blocks of spectrum in the 698 MHz-806 MHz band to complement existing LTE offerings.
COLOMBIA – In the first year of providing LTE services, Movistar claims to have reached 300,000 LTE customers in its postpaid base. The carrier offers LTE in 75 cities.
LatAm – Dynamic spectrum access techniques that improve utilization would help alleviate the spectrum crunch, enable the “Internet of Things” and close the digital divide in Latin America, according to Prof. H. Nwana, executive director of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance.
BRAZIL – Nextel VP Alfonso de Orbegoso said that the company might bid in Brazil’s 1.8 GHz spectrum band auction. Brazil’s telecom regulator, Anatel, expects to hold an auction next year for spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands.
Wondering what’s going on in Latin America? Why don’t you follow me on Twitter? Also check out all of RCR Wireless News’ Latin American content.
