A new round opens in the European telecommunications risk and once again the protagonist is Telefonica. The Spanish giant would be negotiating the sale to British Telecom of English society O2specializing in mobile telephony. As part of the operation, it is reported that Telefonica could forfeit its own 20% of BT. The aim would be to build a strategic alliance capable of benefiting both big telephony companies.
The news was confirmed by British Telecom, which however specified that the negotiation is in a "preliminary phase" and that it is by no means certain that "the transaction will be completed".
“We have received expressions of interest from shareholders of two UK mobile operators, one of which is O2, on a possible transaction which would see BT take over their mobile business,” British Telecom underlined.
Telefonica also confirmed the negotiations with BT, defining them "preliminary" in a note sent to the CVM, the Spanish Consob. The group has stated several times that O2 remains a central part of its business, but has never ruled out the possibility of selling, if this could help achieve the goal of reducing debt to less than 43 billion euros by the end of the year.
It should be noted that O2 would be making a comeback: in 2002 BT, through a spin-off, separated the activities of O2, previously called BT Cellnet, and in 2005 it sold the company to Telefonica for 17,7 billion pounds.
BT, which is the UK's market leader in broadband, is working on a complex plan to get back into the mobile market and will launch its mobile offering next year, leasing the network from EE. In this context, the buyback of O2 would be a key strategic move to strengthen competition against Vodafone, EE, Virgin Media and TalkTalk.
