Milan-based Fastweb operates a nationwide optic fiber network running IP, on which it offers broadband, voice and TV services in 130 towns and cities around Italy. With 1.06 million customers, 84% of them residential, the price being offered for Fastweb is, in simplistic terms, $4,600 per customer, though clearly that does not take into account the number of employees in its business accounts. Fastweb had revenue of 1.26bn euros ($1.7bn) and EBITDA of 424.6m euros ($560m) in 2006.
Fastweb had in fact been spoken of over the last year or so as being an acquisition target for Vodafone Group Plc, which is already the second largest mobile operator in Italy and has spoken publicly of its desire to partner with or acquire broadband assets with a view to offering fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) services both to the residential market and to business.
Fastweb clearly has the same idea under its own steam, the Swisscom announcement saying that the Swiss carrier would support the Italian company’s plans to become an MVNO. Swisscom said the takeover bid was a friendly one and that it had carrier out due diligence with the blessing of the Fastweb board.
An eventual acquisition of Fastweb, which is Italy’s most high-profile challenger to Telecom Italia in fixed-line, would significantly increase Swisscom’s international presence, which to date is limited to its Eurospot WiFi hotspot network in 12 countries in western Europe and the US.
