Vodafone to stir European telecommunications market

Vodafone has agreed to pay €18.4 billion to buy Liberty Global’s (branded as UPC) assets in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania. UPC runs a large broadband cable infrastructure in these countries. It is the most significant consolidation move in European telecoms in more than a decade, according to the Financial Times. The merger will trigger reviews by the European regulatory bodies to investigate whether this deal creates a potential monopoly. Other telecom carriers such as Deutsche Telecom (and its subsidiaries T-Mobile, T-Systems) are critical to this deal.