Week 13 in Telecoms, Internet, Media

Corporate

• Syn (Iceland, brand Vodafone): Tower sale & lease-back with anon investors; sells 49.9% stake in Faroese associate P/F (Tjaldur 50.1%; brand Hey), DKK 52.5m, maintains service agreement
• MasMovil (KKR, Cinven, Providence): Moody's places B1 rating on review for downgrade on debt-financed acquisition of Euskaltel
• Euskaltel: Moody's places B1 rating on review for downgrade on MasMovil offer (10x EV/EBITDA pre-synergies) (debt-financed acquisition of the company will likely result in weaker credit metrics for the combined entity, including leverage rising initially to over 6.0x)
• Digi: Sells Digi Hungary (incl Invitel, I TV) to 4iG [on exclusion from 5G auction]
• KPN: HEMA to end MVNO sales 210501, prepaid refers to KPN, to shut down 220501
• Cellnex: To raise EUR 7b equity
• Telenet (Liberty Global): Acquires 49% stake in Caviar Group (prodco)
• M6 (RTL): Rumor: TF1, Vivendi, Xavier Niel, Mediawan, KKR, Matthieu Pigasse & Pierre-Antoine Capton, Daniel Křetínský (also Mediaset, NRJ, Altice Europe) interested
• Music
• Vivendi: UMG (80%) raises EUR 3b financing line from banks, 5 yr; CHQ in Hilversum (NL)
• HYBE: Acquires Ithaca Holdings (Scooter Braun); issues 863k new shares at 186 $/share = $161m, total $1.05b incl debt
• Sony: SME acquires Som Livre (record label Brazil), $255m
• Accenture: Acquires Cygni (IT)
• Deliveroo (Amazon) IPO price set at GBP 3.90 [see 210308]; first trade 331p, closes at 287p
• Funding
• Getir: Raises $300m at $2.6b valuation, plans expansion to NL, DE, FR
• Hitmart: Raises $130m; 1300 employees, 12 offices
• Otrium: Raises $120m, plans expansion to US

Networks

• General
• OECD publishes new Going Digital toolkit (based on access, use, innovation, jobs, society, trust, market openness); Netherlands score on access penetrations: broadband 93, M2M 21, mobile broadband 67, HH broadband acceess 98, business broadband speed >30 Mb/s 86, 4G broadband coverage 99, urban/rural broadband divide 100
• US White House proposes $100b for universal broadband access by 2030 (as part of $2.25t Infrastructure & Tax Proposal (The American Jobs Plan); to raise corporate tax from 21 to 28%, tax on overseas profits from 13 to 21%) [focus on cheap munifiber]
• FTTH
• Germany
• EFN eifel-net Internetprovider (rural FTTP) raises funds from John Laing
• Jobst NET (rural FTTP) raises funds from John Laing
• DNSNET sells 60% stake to 3i, EUR 182m; Alexander Lucke retains 40%
• UK: Virgin Media UK (Liberty Global) trials use of Openreach ducts & poles for FTTP expansion (first in Swadlincote)
• Italy: FiberCop (TIM 58%, KKR 37.5%, Fastweb 4.5%) starts operations as carrier-neutral OA wholesale operator; targets positive FCF (EBITDA - capex) by 2025, will not require capital injections; current pops coverage (FTTC + FTTH) 90%; targets 76% black/grey area MDUs (= 56% nationwide units coverage) by 2025 
• 5G
• Telia launches Private 4G/5G solution in Norway based on licensed spectrum, on-premise RAN (already in Sweden)
• Verizon Business plans Private 5G at Associated British Ports (ABP) for Port of Southampton, with Nokia [see 201019]
• Xiaomi launches Mi 11 Ultra (with secondary screen): 6.8 inch, Snapdragon 888, 120 Hz OLED, 5k mAh battery; and Mi 11 Lite 5G: 6.6 inch, Snapdragon 780, 90 Hz OLED
• Realme launches low-end 5G smartphone Q2i (from $152)

Services

• NBCUnivcersal (Comcast): Rumor: considers pulling movies from competitors (Netflix, HBO Max: movies 9 mo after theatrical release) to add to Peacock after theatrical & TVOD windows
• Lionsgate: Sells 75% Pantaya stake to Hemisphere, $124m cash [see 170801]
• T-Mobile US expands Google partnership: to resell YouTube TV (replacing TVision, closing 210429), Messages by Google as default RCS on Android smartphones; to offer Pixel smartphones; promoting Google One (backup & storage); 5G covers 287m pops, 1.6m miles^2
• Telekom DE partners with Hamburg for citywide EV-charging for taxis (Project Future Taxi)
• Google (Alphabet): Starts trialing FLoC cookie alternative in Chrome browser [see 210303]
• Pinterest: Rumor: to acquire VSCO (photo app; total raised $90m, last at $550m valuation)
• Facebook: Instagram launches Remix on Reels: record video alongside video from other user [a la TikTok Duets]
• Audio
• Spotify: Acquires Betty Labs, creator of Locker Room (sports-focused live talk app) [a la Clubhouse]
• Discord: Launches Stage Channels feature: broadcast live audio conversations to a room of virtual listeners [a la Clubhouse]
• LinkedIn (Microsoft): Plans in-app social audio experience [a la Clubhouse]

Regulation

• Platforms
• Letter from 40 European SME tech companies to EU MEPs on DMA (gatekeepers [see 201215]): propose stronger ex ante interoperability requirement (as in DSA) for dominant gatekeeper firms; interoperability reduces anti-competitive barriers created by lock-in of established user bases
• Facebook
• Nick Clegg (VP Global Affairs): "In the long run, people are only going to feel comfortable with these algorithmic systems if they have more visibility into how they work and then have the ability to exercise more informed control over them."; "Facebook demotes clickbait (headlines that are misleading or exaggerated), highly sensational health claims (like those promoting “miracle cures”), and engagement bait (posts that explicitly seek to get users to engage with them)."; "You should be able to better understand how the ranking algorithms work and why they make particular decisions, and you should have more control over the content that is shown to you. You should be able to talk back to the algorithm and consciously adjust or ignore the predictions it makes — to alter your personal algorithm in the cold light of day, through breathing spaces built into the design of the platform."
• Launches features (in Android & iOS): Most Recent timeline (chronological display), Favorites timeline, turn of political ads, snooze specific pages or persons