Romania: Cablecos seek acquisitions
January 25, 2011
According to a report by Romanian daily newspaper Ziural Financier, RomTelecom and Romania Cable Systems (RCS&RDS), the country’s two largest broadband providers by subscribers, are going head-to-head in the acquisition of a number of smaller cablecos, as a way of increasing their network footprints.
The newspaper claims that RCS&RDS has acquired a new subsidiary in the form of Teleson, which is based in the Transylvanian city of Sighisoara, from Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L) politician Petru Basa. Teleson, which has been operational for around 18 years, currently offers fixed line telephony, broadband internet and cable TV. No financial details of the transaction has been announced.
The report goes on to suggest that RCS&RDS is deliberately targeting companies that RomTelecom has expressed an interest in, submitting aggressive counter-offers in a bid to derail the larger company’s acquisitive strategy. The newspaper speculates that the increasingly fierce rivalry has been stoked by RCS&RDS commercial manager Ovidiu Ghima’s defection to RomTelecom, where he now heads acquisition talks.