Following the news that Liberty Global is talking to Vodafone about a possible JV in The Netherlands, the company is withdrawing from its T-Mobile Nederland bid, according to De Telegraaf.
Liberty Global was one of the interested parties in acquiring the Dutch operations of T-Mobile, others making a bid are investment firms Warburg Pincus and Apollo.
Deutsche Telekom’s Dutch subsidiary T-Mobile Nederland is up for sale, the operator is number three in the Dutch market.
A bid by Liberty Global would have made sense, as there would be synergy advantages; but with the cable giant now talking to Vodafone, the number two mobile operator, the two investment firms are now left alone in the bidding race, which is due to close mid-February.
Alongside its mobile offer, T-Mobile Nederland has also started to offer other products, including an OTT streaming television service called Knippr. This month, the operator started a beta test for the new service.
T-Mobile Nederland operates the brands T-Mobile and Ben. In 2013, the company started with an ambitious network programme, in which 4G is rolled out and the entire existing network is fully modernized.
In October 2015 T-Mobile reached 95% national coverage. This means that 95% of all residents in the Netherlands will then live inside the T-Mobile 4G coverage area.
