All articles by Richard Agnew – Page 32
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Financial & Performance
Vodafone: DT and Orange are ‘credible’ tower merger partners
Read confirms either of Vodafone’s big European rivals could end up being an ally as noise continues to increase around an “industrial merger” for Group’s Vantage Towers business.
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Network & Infrastructure
Vantage states ‘clear interest’ in Cornerstone buyout
Vodafone’s European TowerCo eyes opportunities in Netherlands and UK as partners Liberty and Telefónica look to cash in on wireless infrastructure assets. Strategic tie-up between Vantage and another MNO TowerCo also remains a possibility.
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Network & Infrastructure
Höttges seeks to bring balance to future tower tie-up
Deutsche Telekom CEO seeks to lure tower partner with promise of hands-off approach to managing the business, allowing it to flourish “independently”. Picky operator unenthusiastic about approaches taken by rivals to tower extraction, including Vodafone’s Vantage Towers IPO earlier in the year.
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Financial & Performance
Accenture taps into DT’s tech revamp with ERP takeover
DT CEO highlights “specific” outsourcing move as an example of Group’s progress and focus on cost reduction. Deal forms part of €100m–€200m IT value chain recalibration DT planning by FY24. Q3 results see DT continuing US-led growth, raising guidance on back of revenue and cash flow boost.
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Partnerships & Alliances
Vodacom in talks over rural wireless alliance
Operator scoping out partners to share investment in thousands of extra sites across its sub-Saharan African footprint. Venture adds to wider technology and business model experimentation by Vodacom, to fund network expansion.
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M&A
INWIT continues to fill M&A kitty
Growing Italian TowerCo building up a €1bn platform for deal-making at end of its latest strategic cycle, in FY23. Expansion plans could give co-parent Vodafone another runner in European TowerCo race, beyond main vehicle Vantage Towers.
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Partnerships & Alliances
Vodafone ‘doubles up’ in Serbia
Group’s Partner Markets federation adds Telekom Srbija to its line-up. Deal, which comes amid an attempted revamp of Partner Markets, encroaches on territory already covered by Vodafone’s long relationship with A1 Telekom Austria.
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Network & Infrastructure
BT implements riskmethods to tackle supply chain issues
riskmethods’ management application delivers “multi-tier transparency”. Move forms part of a wider supply chain management refresh.
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Premium
DT heads down under for fibre mate
Australia’s IFM named as Gigabit investment partner following long period of speculation. Move adds to TDE CEO Gopalan’s box of tricks as he seeks to pragmatically accelerate the Group’s slow-building fibre deployment. Startup JV embedded with various protective measures for DT, such as balance sheet deconsolidation, and long-term/standalone strategic ...
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Financial & Performance
Telefónica passes €1bn in shape shifting Tech push
Telefónica Tech division hitting €1bn in annualised revenue flagged as a highlight in Group’s Q3 results presentation. Growth business’s expansion still being significantly driven by M&A, obscuring ‘organic’ progress. Operator maintains rebound from pandemic with growth in earnings and revenue, and confirmation of guidance.
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Financial & Performance
T-Mobile rides cyberattack storm
Operator’s Q3 numbers indicate few customers ditched its services in wake of high-profile data breach in August. Competitor exploitation of Sprint integration challenges highlighted as bigger issue, albeit one T-Mobile intends to make “short-lived”. T-Mobile highlights organisational and cultural changes in response to attack.
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Venturing & Investments
Vivo transaction carries Telefónica Tech into Brazilian IoT space
Telefónica’s expansive growth areas division furthers its international ambitions by negotiating a tie-up with Vivo on IoT and analytics-based services. Deal mirrors an August transaction that gave Telefónica Tech an interest in Vivo’s cloud and security business.
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Financial & Performance
Tesco Mobile results: JV shines positive light on challenging period
Mixed bag for joint venture throughout UK lockdowns. “Highly competitive” twelve months sees operating profit rise 20%.
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Operations
Restructuring and legacy write-down hurt T-Systems UK
Deutsche Telekom’s UK enterprise IT unit records a loss on revenue slowdown. Figures also blunted by impairment of Managed Infrastructure unit.
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Operations
Unions eke out concessions on Vodafone Spain cuts
Operator firms up yet another business overhaul. Deal made to outsource remaining retail outlets rather than close them as part of job cull. Terms agreed for voluntary redundancies and retirements.
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Financial & Performance
Hrvatski Telekom continues to eye regional M&A
Croatian operator sees an uptick in business during summer months, leading to raised forecasts. Management remains keen on building HT into a regional telco/IT business, saying dealmaking opportunities are being monitored.
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Partnerships & Alliances
Vodafone sees sales dip from international tie-ups
Revenue from Group’s Partner Markets federation falls back amid pandemic and footprint reduction. Vodafone’s flow of cash from Africa takes a drop following rework of M-PESA business.
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Strategy & Change
DT looking to Russia to crack digital code
Group moots coming expansion of its St. Petersburg software development facility by two-thirds. Hiring plan aimed at supporting key IT challenges such as fibre roll out planning and management, customer experience improvement, and open RAN deployment.
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Premium
DT starts mobility-as-a-service ecosystem build
Telekom Mobility Solutions taps Siemens on mobility-as-a-service app development. Bonn deployment scheduled for mid-2022, with local DT employees getting first dibs. Wider German rollout expected to follow soon after, subject to platform popularity.
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Partnerships & Alliances
BuyIn boasts transatlantic tech sourcing footprint
Purchasing JV indicates it is widening strategic sourcing scope in North American vendor ecosystem. Comments come with DT seeking to build closer strategic links with its American growth engine.