Telefonica still interested in HanseNet, no agreement made on price

Spanish telecoms group Telefonica has said it is still negotiating a price with Telecom Italia for the Italian telco’s German broadband division HanseNet, reports Dow Jones Newswires. ‘We are interested, but no agreement has been made on the price,’ commented Telefonica’s European head, Matthew Key, in a meeting with analysts. Telefonica already operates in the German telecoms market, providing fixed line and mobile services as Telefonica O2 Deutschland. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, TI confirmed that HanseNet was up for sale in February 2009. The following month Telefonica, UK-based telecoms group Vodafone and German cable operator United Internet all reportedly made bids for HanseNet, which had a total of 2.289 million high speed internet subscribers at 30 June 2009. The company could fetch up to EUR1.5 billion (USD2.13 billion).