Kabel Deutschland (KDG) is to buy a number of cable networks from Orion Cable for €585 million, thereby increasing its customer total by 1.2 million homes. At the same time, KDG will give its 24% share in Kabel-Service Berlin GmbH to Orion. KDG will also no longer pursue the acquisition of PrimaCom and sell its 17.5% share in the company to Orion.
The deal means customers in the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg- Vorpommern, Rhineland-Palatina, Saarland and Bavaria will come into the KDG fold. At the moment, these are TeleColumbus and ewt customers. The Berlin cable operations, in which KDG has a minority share, will now be fully owned by Tele Columbus GmbH, of which Orion is the owner. For KDG, the new acquisition will mean they can better integrate their level 3 and level 4 customers, which they can now offer full triple play services.
KDG will also sell its 3 ,807,617 shares in PrimaCom to Orion for the price of €10 per share, making the total deal worth well over €38 million. With KDG out of the race for PrimaCom, Orion will now try and take control of the company. The complex deal between KDG and Orion will have to be confirmed by the German monopolies and mergers commission, after which the integration will take place sometime in 2008.
