Germany's Deutsche Telekom finally got the deal it had been seeking with the Greek government, agreeing to acquire another 3 percent of Greek telco OTE on top of the 20 percent it already had agreed to acquire. The 3 percent piece is worth about $685 million. Additionally--and this is the kicker because DT wanted some management control--the German telco will buy shares equaling another 2 percent of OTE on the public market. The result of the deal will be a 25 percent stake plus one vote, a total deal cost of about $5 billion that will give DT the same level of ownership in OTE as the Greek government, with the option to buy more. DT will get its choice of CEO, while the Greeks choose a chairman. OTE is primarily a mobile operator, but also own Romania's wireline telco RomTelecom.
For more:
- see this post at TeleGeography
- read this story from the Athens News Agency