Vodafone will pay €7.2 euros to acquire the private equity-owned business which offers cable TV and internet services to its more than 1.9 million Spanish customers.
This latest move furthers Vodafone’s expressed plan to spend up to £25 billion of the £84 billion generated from the sale of its stake in Verizon Wireless on investment in core European networks. It also comes six months after the company purchased a controlling stake in German cable operator Kabel.
Before the Vodafone deal, Ono's private equity owners had been planning to float the company on the Madrid stock exchange. Jose Maria Castellano Rios, chairman of Ono's board of directors, said the enlarged business would help to "drive innovation in the Spanish telecommunications industry", while Vodafone boss Vittorio Colao called the deal “an attractive value creation opportunity”.
