Vodafone Germany is looking at acquiring Kabel Deutschland KDG, according to a report in the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt. The mobile operator already owns the Arcor fixed and DSL network and is runner-up in terms of market share after Deutsche Telekom.
Vodafone did not want to comment on the report. “We constantly look at the entire market,” said a spokesperson for the operator.
“Cable is now a serious competitor for the traditional telecom companies. The fact that telecom companies now acquire cable infrastructure, underlines the attractiveness of that infrastructure,” said Torsten Winkler, supervisory board at Kabel Deutschland (KDG) and director of investment firm Providence, a major shareholder in KDG, to the newspaper.
Acquiring a cable network the size of KDG would make sense to Vodafone as it would allow it to better compete with Deutsche Telekom. With the cable infrastructure, the operator would be able to offer full quad play. Earlier this year, the telecom operator Versatel acquired the smaller Berlin cable provider AKF Telekabel, with 76,000 customers.
