TeliaSonera has announced offers to buy out the shareholders in Lithuania’s TEO LT and Estonia’s Eesti Telekom. The company is offering SEK 1.56 billion ($222 million) for the outstanding 40% of TEO LT and SEK 3.3 billion ($468.4 million) for the 40% outstanding in Eesti Telekom. Both offers are not conditional and have no minimum threshold of shares acquired.
No specific reasons were given, except the usual talk of synergies. We see the move as TeliaSonera’s effort to strengthen its position in the region and eventually expand outside of Scandinavia. Moreover, the reason could be that because of the looming recession made the two companies more affordable, hence better targets for acquisition.
For the record, Eesti Telekom operates Estonia’s only IP-based TV service and also has investments in cable TV services, while Lithuania’s TEO LT has IPTV and DTT interests…
[Via: CellularNews]