There are at least five parties interested in buying the fixed line triple play business Vodafone Thuis.
The sale of the business is required by the European Commission as a condition of the proposed Vodafone-Ziggo merger. Vodafone Thuis delivers TV, broadband access and phone services via the glass fibre and fixed network from KPN, and has some 123,000 subscribers.
According to the report, Tele2, M7 Group (CanalDigitaal DTH platform and Online.nl fixed line), Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), Fiber Nederland and Nederlandse Energie Maatschappij (NEM) put in bids – none of which exceeded EUR100 million.
NEM is a newcomers to the market. The company has been active for years selling gas and electricity to consumers and only recently started offering telephony and internet services.
Meanwhile, the Dutch competition authority ACM has said that it will start another market survey for the fixed line triple play market, as it is aiming to open up the Ziggo cable network to third parties. Until now, the authority failed to do so, as European rules prevented such a move.
