Spain’s incumbent operator Telefonica de Espana SA has finally managed to negotiate its way out of the Unisource NV alliance of Swiss Telecom, Telia AB, Koninklijke PTT Netherland NV, and AT&T Corp, by selling off its 25% stake for $235m. The three Europeans will buy back a third of its Unisource stake each and, to balance the deal, Telefonica is buying back the stakes Unisource holds in its subsidiaries Telefonica Transmission de Datos, and Telefonica VSat, for $235m. The Spanish carrier will also pay $97m in compensation for leaving the Unisource alliance less than a year after joining. Telefonica has been trying to get out of Unisource, for six months (CI No 3,170), and was due to jump ship to British Telecommunications Plc and MCI Corp’s merged company and global telecoms operation Concert. But WorldCom Inc’s proposed $37bn take-over of MCI has scuppered those plans, and left Telefonica without a clear partner. Telefonica is a key player in Latin American telecoms through its Telefonica International SA subsidiary and, due to MCI’s extensive Mexican interests, Telefonica is rumored to courting WorldCom/MCI.
