Telefonica Deutschland, Germany’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, could drop a number of its secondary brands as it adjusts its portfolio following the acquisition of E-Plus in October last year. A report by W&V claims that the company could discontinue established brands E-Plus, BASE and Simyo, while retaining the O2, Blau.de and FONIC banners. According to the report, Telefonica confirmed that it was working on the repositioning of each brand ‘to avoid overlap in distribution’.
TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that Telefonica Deutschland announced the completion of its EUR8.55 billion (USD9.2 billion) acquisition of Dutch telecoms company KPN’s German mobile unit E-Plus in October 2014. The combination of E-Plus with Telefonica’s existing German operations created a player with 41.71 million mobile subscribers (as at end 2014), making it the country’s largest wireless network operator with a market share of 38.4%. Spanish telecoms group Telefonica holds a 62.1% stake in the combined entity, while KPN owns 20.5%; the remaining 17.4% is in free float.