Vodafone acquires Spanish cable operator Ono for 7,2 billon euros

Vodafone, British multinational telecommunications company, announced an agreement to buy Spain's largest cable operator Ono on March 17, 2014.

Vodafone has about 14 million customers in Spain, while Ono offers cable TV, fixed and mobile communications services to 1.9 million customers on its network covering 7.2 million Spanish households out of around 16 million. Ono entered Spanish broadband market at a later stage comparing to other cable companies, benefiting from the opportunity to use advanced technologies allowing to develop broadband speed of up to 200 megabits per second, which is up to 20 times the average of rival networks.

 "The combination of Vodafone and Ono creates a leading integrated communications provider in Spain and represents an attractive value creation opportunity for Vodafone," said Vodafone Group chief executive Vittorio Colao in a statement.

The deal will provide Vodafone with substantial opportunity to sell high speed and high quality broadband and television services to its existing customers; market its mobile services to Ono’s customers; as well as offer new services generated from both companies’ technologies and networks. Adding Ono deal to its last year’s purchase of German Cable operator Kabel Deutschland will help Vodafone in further consolidation of its  European markets expansion efforts.

In addition, in 2013 Vodafone announced its new global own-brand strategy for 2014 focusing on examples of people doing remarkable things for the first time, inspired and enabled by the company’s technology.