The French conglomerate Vivendi is eyeing an opportunity to expand in Brazil. The Financial Times quoted the company’s CEO, Jean-Bernard Levy, saying they would “closely watch what is happening on the [Brazilian] mobile scene in case we find some opportunities.”
The country’s regulator Anatel is considering to auction a nationwide radio spectrum license for mobile services, prompting Levy to say that Vivendi is watching Anatel’s deliberations “extremely closely.”
Vivendi already owns the country’s fixed-line broadband company GVT for which it paid $4 billion last November. With the addition of a mobile operator, Vivendi could offer a complete range of telecommunication services, including broadband, mobile and fixed line telephony.
In the other Vivendi news, the company seems to want to acquire the remaining 44% stake of SFR which is held by Vodafone. Considering that Voda’s Vittorio Colao said they are not interested in having minority stakes, this could happen at some point in the future. Timeline is unknown at the moment, but I’m sure various investment banks are pitching both Vivendi and Vodafone as we speak.
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]