Swisscom has made a $4.86 billion bid for Italy's triple play provider, FastWeb. The bid is a 12 percent premium over the company's most recent stock price. Swisscom already has the blessing of FastWeb's board, its chairman and lead investor Silvio Scaglia, who controls 18.75 percent of the stock. Swisscom needs more than 50 percent of the company's investors to push the deal through.
The deal marks the most recent attempt from Swisscom to make an international acquisition. The latest such attempt fell through after talks with Eircom ended in late 2005. Some analysts believe the deal could trump up some regulatory issues in Italy since Swisscom is not subject to EU regulations.
For more on Swisscom's bid for FastWeb:
- see this Light Reading article