Telefónica has reached an agreement with Telecom Italia SpA to buy its German subsidiary, HanseNet for €900 million in an all-cash deal. The acquisition will make Telefónica, which also owns O2 Germany, the number three player in the German market.
Closing of the transaction will take place in early 2010. The combined new company, Telefónica O2 Germany, will have 15 million mobile and around 2.4 million broadband customers. HanseNet currently has about 2.2 million broadband homes and is the fourth largest provider.Telefónica meanwhile currently has 253,000 broadband subscribers.
Hamburg-based HanseNet operates under the brand name Alice and reported revenue of €1.19 billion in 2008. HanseNet was acquired by Telecom Italia, Italy’s largest telecommunication company, in 2003.
The company has also just started to roll out a VDSL service in 50 cities across Germany.