Global cable mergers continue to be one of 2015 stories, and today we saw another one over in Europe. Germany’s Tele Columbus has agreed to buy rival PrimaCom for $777M or so in cash.
The deal would combine the #3 and #4 operators in Germany, creating a larger #3 behind Liberty Global’s Unitymedia and Vodafone’s Kabel Deutschland with some 2.8M homes served. Those two have more than double the subscribers, so it’s still a distant #3.
This is actually not the first time these two companies have gotten this far. Back in 2007, Orion Cable GmbH tried to integrate the two after buying 91% of PrimaCom. But the process foundered and PrimaCom eventually went through a refinancing and was bought by Luxembourg’s Medfort S.à rl.
But one thing the deal won’t have to face, apparently, is regulatory scrutiny. The combined revenues are under €500M, which is below the threshold necessary to seek permission from the German cartel office. Tele Columbus therefore expects to close the deal on July 31.
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Categories: Cable · Mergers and Acquisitions
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