Telecom Italia SpA, Italy's biggest telephone operator, agreed to buy Time Warner Inc's AOL Germany division for 675 million euros (US$855 million) in cash to gain 2.4 million Internet subscribers.
With the acquisition, Telecom Italia will become Germany's second-largest Internet service provider, with about 3.2 million subscribers, the Milan-based company said in a stock-exchange statement yesterday. It will have about 9 million broadband subscribers in total across four European nations.
The company is increasing its focus on broadband and media services under a strategic plan that was announced only on Sept. 11 and then led to the resignation of Marco Tronchetti Provera as chairman on Friday. Former European phone monopolies from Telecom Italia to France Telecom SA and Telefonica SA are offering new services such as television over the Web to increase customer spending as revenue from traditional phone calls drops.
"This acquisition marks a further step in Telecom Italia's strategy of focusing on broadband services and content delivery at an international level," chief executive officer Riccardo Ruggiero said in the statement.
Tronchetti Provera, 58, resigned as Telecom Italia's chairman after his reorganization plan -- in particular the possibility the wireless division might be sold off -- was assailed by Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's government and unions.
Tronchetti, who remains the largest shareholder in the holding company that controls Telecom Italia, quit to "safeguard the interests of the company and investors," Telecom Italia said late on Friday. Guido Rossi, 75, is the company's new chairman.
Shares of Telecom Italia have declined 11 percent this year, giving the company a market value of 41.3 billion euros. The 24-member Bloomberg Europe Telecommunications Services Index has fallen 3.9 percent this year.
Telecom Italia expects the number of ADSL users in Germany to increase to 22 million in three years, from 12 million at the end of June.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS