"As telecom companies gradually recover from the previous crisis, those powerful giants have begun to turn their attention to relatively weak companies. According to our analysis, it is very likely that mergers and acquisitions between telecom companies will become more frequent again..."
What O2 Telecom CEO Barry Trelles said makes sense.
Just like the example he cited before, Czech Telecom seems to have become a new target. Recently, both Belgian Telecom and Swisscom seem to have taken over the telecommunications company with the most users in the Czech Republic.
In addition, Deutsche Telekom has similar acquisition intentions in Slovenia and France Telecom in Poland.
Barron understood that Barry Trelles was not worried that O2 would become a target of other telecom giants.
Because all the shares of this company are in the hands of Barron, as long as he does not agree, no one can complete the acquisition of O2 Telecom.
But at the same time, integrating businesses through acquisitions is also the fastest and most effective way for telecommunications companies to expand, and the same is true for O2 Telecom.
"O2 will also go public through an IPO, but we need to choose the right time..."
Although O2 Telecom will not be a target of acquisition now, because O2 Telecom itself is the mobile business spun off from British Telecom, its other businesses have not been developed for a long time. In order to compete for the market, a large amount of funds have been used to deploy mobile communications and broadband networks, and there is not much money left for acquisitions.
Under such circumstances, an IPO is also the best way to obtain funds.
As long as Barron maintains a sufficient shareholding ratio, he can still keep it firmly in his hands.
And there is another benefit of O2 Telecom's listing, that is, when they acquire other companies, they can do so by issuing additional shares, which does not mean that cash acquisition is the only option - when O2 Telecom's prospects are promising, the shareholders of the acquired company will prefer to exchange the stocks they hold for O2 Telecom's shares.
If O2 Telecom is listed on the stock exchange, its market value and share price will have more credibility, which will also make it easier to determine the proportion of additional shares when acquiring other companies through stock swaps.
The listing of O2 Telecom was already in Barron's plan, and Summit Media's IPO can only be regarded as a pathfinder.
After all, listing the company you own can make it easier to use capital operations to make profits.
But given the size of O2 Telecom, the current Summit Media is definitely no match for it.
Unlike Summit Media, which is listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, which is equivalent to the Growth Enterprise Market, O2 Telecom's listing target is definitely the main board of the London Stock Exchange.
However, on the one hand, O2 Telecom had just been acquired by Barron's for more than a year, and it was still not enough to meet the requirements for listing on the main board of the London Stock Exchange.
In addition, O2 Telecom is making every effort to develop the markets in Germany and France, and the number of users is still increasing rapidly.
It can be said that this company is still in a stage of rapid expansion. If it goes public at this stage, its financial indicators are not sufficient to give a satisfactory performance. Therefore, its corresponding stock price and market value may also be underestimated.
Therefore, the best option is to go public through an IPO after O2 Telecom has experienced rapid expansion and its business has become relatively stable.
O2 Telecom CEO Barry Trelles also agreed with Barron's point.
It is also worth mentioning that while telecom companies are competing for broadband services for individual users, they are also trying to provide users with richer services through broadband services, not just the quality and price of the network.
For example, British Telecom is now providing Yahoo Messenger devices to broadband users.
The product is used to integrate BT VoIP components with Yahoo's PC text messaging software.
The software can be downloaded free of charge from the BT website or installed from a CD.
However, this service still has many shortcomings compared to Skype, which is co-operated with O2 Telecom.
For example, when British Telecom users use this service, which is named BT Talker by them, it can only be used for existing BT PSTN users, and most of the call charges are the same as British Telecom's current rates.
At the same time, the service does not allow incoming calls. Incoming calls will be connected to the user's standard telephone without call waiting function (£1.75/month), which can notify narrowband users of incoming calls while surfing the Internet.
These are indeed less attractive to users compared to Skype, where most of its services are free or extremely low-cost.
For this reason, Skype has developed rapidly, especially in the UK and France markets dominated by O2 Telecom, where the number of its users has also grown rapidly.
In addition to Skype, O2 Telecom has also partnered with SEM Group and Digital UK's Freeview platform to provide users with video services from the DailyVedio website.
The DailyVideo website is a video sharing website similar to YouTube, except that YouTube has not yet appeared.
Users can access the DailyVideo website through the Freeview platform and the Internet to upload their own videos or watch videos of other users.
However, because the current broadband network speed is not fast enough, the DailyVideo website only provides low-definition and short-duration video functions.
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After leaving England, the next stop of the Colo delegation is France.
However, Jammeh Bongo did not gain much in France, which may be related to the pressure they had previously exerted to force three French mining companies to give up their shares.
After all, Colo is an underdeveloped country with a small land area. It ranks fourth from the bottom among the 16 countries and one region in West Africa.
It can be said that apart from the phosphate mines, there was nothing here that France at that time could value.
But even with all this, the French authorities were naturally unhappy with the pressure put on them by their former colony to take away 40% of the shares of a French mining company.
But in the end, Jammeh Bongo did not gain nothing in France, at least because the Republic of Cologne passed the benchmark of the International Monetary Fund's "Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Relief Initiative", so the Paris Club led by France agreed to forgive its 150 million euros of debt - in fact, most of this "debt" was the interest they had borrowed from members of the Paris Club before...
It's good enough to forgive some of the debt. As for continuing to get aid or low-interest loans from France, that might be a bit difficult...
In fact, Jammeh Bongo and others had anticipated this result before coming to France. Now it is at least much better than the worst result they expected, so it can be regarded as an explanation.
Next, Jammeh Bongo will continue his visit, and his next stop will be the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, where he will discuss with the EU about the relief of Kolo's debt and try to obtain some further assistance.
There is no other way. Given the country's current strength, if we want more development, we can only seek help from those "big brothers".
After the EU, Jammeh Bongo's itinerary will also include the United States, China and Russia, which are influential major countries in Africa.