Altice, led by telco mogul Patrick Drahi and owner of now SFR-Numericable, has their sights on Portugal Telecom (PT) for which it has made a reported 7.4 billion euro offer. As their offer proved to be more attractive than a rival 7.075 billion euros offer by Apax et Bain Capital, PT’s owner, Brazilian telco Oi, quickly advanced negotiations with Altice.
In order to make the offer even more attractive, Altice also agreed a deal with Portugal’s postal service, CTT, to develop synergies in the Portuguese telco market. This agreement would open the way to a similar model seen in France where the postal service also services a key distribution channel for telecom services and handsets.
This deal wouldn’t be Altice’s first foray into the Portuguese market as they already own Portuguese cable-operator Cabovisao (acquired in 2012) and enterprise telco service provider Oni (acquired in 2013). Bringing PT into the fold with its 40-50% share in the mobile, hi-speed, and television markets, will make Altice the top player in the Portuguese telco space.