The telecom sector continues to be at the epicenter for growth, innovation, and disruption for virtually any industry. Mobile devices and related broadbandconnectivity continue to be more and more embedded in the fabric of society today and they are key in driving the momentum around some key trends such as video streaming, Internet of Things (IoT), and mobile payments.
Think of telecommunications as the world's biggest machine. Strung together by complex networks, telephones, mobile phones and internet-linked PCs, the global system touches nearly all of us. It allows us to speak, share thoughts and do business with nearly anyone, regardless of where in the world they might be. Telecom operating companies make all this happen.
Insight Research[3] projected that telecommunications services revenue worldwide would grow from $2.2 trillion in 2015 to $2.4 trillion in 2019.[4]
Market segmentation
Of all the customermarkets, residential and small business markets are the toughest. With hundreds of players in the market, competitors rely heavily on price; success rests largely on brand name strength and investment in efficient billing systems. The corporate market remains the industry's favorite. Big corporate customers are concerned mostly about the quality and reliability of their telephone calls and data delivery while being less price-sensitive than residential customers. Multinationals, spend heavily on telecom infrastructure and premium services like high-securityprivate networks and videoconferencing. Network connectivity can also be provided to other telecom companies by wholesaling circuits to heavy network users like internet service providers and large corporations.
[1]
Around 24,800 M&A deals have been conducted in the Telecommunication Industry with either the acquirer or the target company coming from the Telecommunications sector. In total over 5.712 bil. USD have been spent on M&A between 1985 and 2018 in this industry.[7] There has only been one big M&A wave around 1999 and 2000. In most other industry there are three waves between 1990 and 2018. Since 1999 deal value shrunk by -90.12% and is expected to stagnate in 2018.
Here is a list of the top 10 Telecommunication deals in history ranked by volume:
Date Announced
Acquiror Name
Acquiror Mid Industry
Acquiror Nation
Target Name
Target Mid Industry
Target Nation
Value of Transaction ($mil)
11/14/1999
Vodafone AirTouch PLC
Wireless
United Kingdom
Mannesmann AG
Wireless
Germany
202,785.13
09/02/2013
Verizon Communications Inc
Telecommunications Services
United States
Verizon Wireless Inc
Wireless
United States
130,298.32
03/05/2006
AT&T Inc
Wireless
United States
BellSouth Corp
Telecommunications Services
United States
72,671.00
05/11/1998
SBC Communications Inc
Telecommunications Services
United States
Ameritech Corp
Telecommunications Services
United States
62,592.54
01/15/1999
Vodafone Group PLC
Wireless
United Kingdom
AirTouch Communications Inc
Telecommunications Services
United States
60,286.87
01/26/2000
Shareholders
Other Financials
Canada
Nortel Networks Corp
Telecommunications Equipment
Canada
59,973.57
06/14/1999
Qwest Commun Intl Inc
Telecommunications Services
United States
US WEST Inc
Other Telecom
United States
56,307.03
06/24/1998
AT&T Corp
Telecommunications Services
United States
Tele-Communications Inc
Cable
United States
53,592.49
07/28/1998
Bell Atlantic Corp
Telecommunications Services
United States
GTE Corp
Telecommunications Services
United States
53,414.58
04/22/1999
AT&T Corp
Telecommunications Services
United States
MediaOne Group Inc
Cable
United States
49,278.87
Recent developments
The telecommunications sector has seen a large increase in the recent years. Whereas in 2015 there were 3.3 billion active mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide, in 2020 there were around 7.7 billion. This increase was due, in part at least, to the deployment of 4G LTE.[8]