Chapter 288 It’s time for dinner again

“As various telecommunications companies gradually recover from the previous crisis, those powerful giants have also begun to turn their attention to relatively weak companies. According to our analysis, it is very likely that mergers and acquisitions between telecommunications companies will become more frequent again. …”

O2 Telecom CEO Berry Trelles' words are not unreasonable.

Just like the example he cited before - Czech Telecom seems to have become a new target. Recently, including Belgium Telecom and Swisscom, it seems that they have taken over this telecommunications company with the largest number of users in the Czech Republic.

In addition, Deutsche Telekom in Slovenia and France Telecom in Poland also have similar acquisition intentions.

Barron understands that Berry Trelles is not worried that O2 Telecom will become a target of other telecom giants.

Because all the shares of the company are in the hands of Barron, as long as he does not agree, no one can complete the acquisition of O2 Telecom.

But at the same time, integrating businesses through acquisitions is also the fastest and most effective way for telecom companies to expand. The same is true for O2 Telecom.

"O2 will also conduct an IPO next, but it needs to choose the right time..."

Although O2 Telecom will not be a target of acquisition now, it is also because O2 Telecom itself is a mobile business separated from British Telecom. The development time of other businesses is not long, and currently in order to compete for the market, a large number of All the funds have been spent on the deployment of mobile communications and broadband networks, and there is not much money for acquisitions.

Under such circumstances, an IPO is also the best way to obtain funds.

As long as Barron maintains a sufficient shareholding ratio, he can still firmly control it.

And another advantage of O2 Telecom being listed is that when they acquire other companies, they can acquire them by issuing additional shares. This does not mean that cash acquisition is the only option - when O2 Telecom's prospects are promising, it is Shareholders of the acquiring company would prefer to exchange their shares for shares of O2 Telecom in the form of a share exchange.

If O2 Telecom is listed on the stock exchange, its market value and stock price will be more credible. This will make it easier to determine the proportion of additional shares when acquiring other companies through stock exchange.

The listing of O2 Telecom itself is in Barron's plan, and the IPO listing of Summit Media can only be regarded as a pathfinder.

After all, listing the companies you hold can make it easier to use capital operations to make profits.

But with the size of O2 Telecom, the current Summit Media is definitely incomparable.

Unlike Summit Media, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM, which is equivalent to the Growth Enterprise Market, O2 Telecom's listing target must be the main board of the London Stock Exchange.

But on the one hand, O2 Telecom had just been acquired by Barron's for more than a year at this time, and it was still not ready for listing on the main board of the London Stock Exchange.

In addition, O2 Telecom is making every effort to develop the markets in Germany and France, and the number of users is still increasing rapidly.

It can be said that this company is still in the stage of rapid expansion. At this stage of listing, its financial indicators are not enough to give satisfactory performance, so its corresponding stock price and market value may also be underestimated.

Therefore, the best choice is to IPO after O2 Telecom has experienced rapid expansion and its business is relatively stable.

Barry Trelles, CEO of O2 Telecom, also expressed his approval for this point raised by Barron.

It is also worth mentioning that while telecom companies are competing for broadband services for individual users, they are also trying to provide users with richer services through broadband services, not just the quality and price of the network.

For example, British Telecom is equipping broadband users with Yahoo Messenger communication devices.

This product is used to integrate BT VoIP components with Yahoo's PC SMS software.

This software can be downloaded for free from the British Telecom website and can also be installed from a CD.

However, this service still has many shortcomings compared to Skype, which cooperates with O2 Telecom.

For example, when users of British Telecom use this service, which is named BT Talker there, it can only be used for existing BT PSTN users, and most of the call charges are the same as British Telecom's current rates.

At the same time, this service does not allow incoming calls. Incoming calls will be connected to the user's standard telephone without call waiting function (£1.75/month), which can notify narrowband users of incoming calls when surfing the Internet.

These are indeed less attractive to users than Skype, where most services are free or have extremely low fees.

Because of this, Skype has developed rapidly, especially in the British and French markets occupied by O2 Telecom, and its number of users has also grown rapidly.

In addition to Skype, O2 Telecom also cooperates with SEM Group and Digital UK's Freeview platform to provide users with video services on the DailyVedio website.

The DailyVideo website is a video sharing website similar to YouTube, but YouTube has not yet appeared.

Users can access the DailyVideo website through the Freeview platform and the Internet, upload their own videos or watch other users' videos.

However, because the current broadband network speed is not very fast, the DailyVideo website only provides low-definition and short-duration video functions.

…

After leaving England, the next stop for the Colo delegation was France.

However, Jamey Bongo did not gain much in France. This may be related to a certain extent because they put pressure on three French mining companies to give up their shares.

After all, Kolo itself is an underdeveloped country, and its land area is not large. It ranks fourth from the bottom among the 16 countries and 1 region in West Africa.

It can be said that except for phosphate rock, there is nothing that France can appreciate at this time.

But that's all. He was also pressured by his former colony to take away 40% of the French mining company's shares. This naturally made the French authorities unhappy.

But in the final analysis, Jammeh Bongo is not without gains in France, at least because the Republic of Colo has passed the compliance point of the International Monetary Fund's "Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Relief Initiative", so the Paris Club headed by France Agreeing to forgive 150 million euros of its debt - in fact, most of this "debt" was the interest on debt it had previously borrowed from Paris Club members...

Part of the debt is forgiven, which is already good. As for continuing to receive aid or low-interest loans from France, that may be a bit difficult...

In fact, Jammeh Bongo and the others had expected this result before coming to France. Now it is at least much better than the worst result they expected, and it can be regarded as an explanation.

Next, Jamei Bongo will continue his visit. The next stop is the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. He will discuss with the EU about the relief of Kolo's debt and the possibility of continuing to obtain some assistance.

There is no way. With such national strength, if you want to have more development, you can only turn to those "big brothers" for help.

After the EU, Jammeh Bongo's itinerary will also include the United States, China and Russia, which are influential countries in Africa.