Telefonica hopes to finalise HanseNet deal within weeks

Spanish telecoms group Telefonica aims to bring talks with Telecom Italia (TI) to buy its German broadband division HanseNet to a close within the next few weeks, Bloomberg reports, citing Telefonica’s chairman Cesar Alierta. ‘I think it will be in the coming weeks, before the year’s end, for sure,’ noted Alierta, adding, ‘It is about price and valuation of the alternatives.’ According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, TI confirmed that its German broadband unit 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) if a sale is agreed upon.