European telecoms assets for sale

America Movil, AT&T and perhaps France Télécom are looking at telecoms assets in Europe. Let's see what could be for sale right now:

• Deutsche Telekom: T-Mobile in Austria, the Netherlands and Albania, Bulgaria
• DT and FT: EE in the UK
• Telefónica: UK and Germany
• KPN: E-Plus (Germany) and Base (Belgium)
• Tele2: Russia, Germany, Austria
• TeliaSonera: Yoigo (Spain)
• Vivendi: SFR (and Maroc Telecom and GVT)
• UPC: Romania
• Further, assets held by private equity: Com Hem (BC Partners), Colt Group/Colt Technology Services (Fidelity) and Eurofiber (Doughty Hanson).
• And then there are companies considering splitting off businesses: Telekom Austria (Eastern Europe), Telefónica (Latin America, Europe).

The question remains, what are potential buyers looking for: mobile, incumbents, cable companies, business/wholesale operators?

Many scenarios are possible:

• Consolidate Germany: buy both E-Plus and O2 and add some Tele2 to the mix. Could this propel Orange into Germany?
• Consolidate the UK: buy both EE and O2. That could be a start for AT&T, in English speaking territory.
• Pan-European fiber: buy both Eurofiber (mainly Netherlands, but some in Germany and Belgium) and Colt Technology for networks and services. This seems a good fit for Vodafone. But also operators such as BT and AT&T could beef up their European asset portfolio.