Thursday, April 08, 2004

German cable concentration Kabel Deutschland, Germany's biggest cable TV network, is getting bigger. It has bought three other German cable companies for around $3 billion. The companies acquired are Iesy, the cable operator in the Frankfurt area, KabelBW, located in southwest Germany, and Ish, the operator in the state the Cologne area. The acquisitions will add 7.5 million new customers to Kabel Deutschland's current base of 10 million. All of this depends on the approval of regulators, of course. According to the Wall Street Journal ("Kabel Deutschland Buys Three Smaller Rival Firms", 4/4/2004) all four companies were spun off from telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekomm between 2000 and 2003, and were held by equity firms. The new company would cover all of Germany. Kabel Deutschland plans to offer enhanced digital and multimedia services, and hopes to both change current regulations and increase cable bills. Unlike in the US, the company that owns the cable, like Kabel Deutschland, is not the same as the company which hooks up the individual user to the system. The company is owned by three foreign equity firms: Providence Equity Partners (US), Goldman Sachs (US), and Apax Partners (UK). The next step, if the acquisition is successful might be to resell the whole package at a markup. 4:30:48 PM

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