Belgacom has confirmed it has offered €420m to the cable companies and municipal shareholders of the Belgian cablenet Interkabel. In a statement the incumbent telco said that its offer was €70m more than had been made by its rival Telenet and 40% more than the upfront payment offered to the municipalities.
Details of the unbinding offer from Belgacom were given in a letter from CEO Didier Bellens delivered to the chairpersons and directors of Integan, Inter-media, PBE and WVEM.
A key differentiator of the Belgacom offer, clearly designed to appeal to the municipalities is that customers will not be bound to a single cable distributor. In a further sweetener, Belgacom points out that acceptance of the deal would allow it to offer cable customers coverage of the Juliper football league, to which it has recently renewed its broadcast contract.
