Table of Contents
1. Executive summary
1.1. The rationale for market consolidation persists
1.2. but the tune has changed
1.3. Towards new ways of consolidation?
2. Methodology & definitions
3. Introduction
4. Main moves in Europe
4.1. General trends: national mobile and convergent moves
4.1.1. M&A trends in Europe
4.2. Most important deals
4.2.1. Vodafone: towards a pan-European convergent giant, via a Liberty Global merger?
4.2.2. Altice: global and convergent moves
4.2.3. Hutchison: a global mobile giant
4.2.4. Orange
4.3. Detailed list of moves to consolidation
5. Regulation, the evolving stance of the Commission
5.1. The Competition Commissioner on telecom mergers
5.2. Regulatory remedies
6. Literature review
6.1. Chamber of Labour of Vienna
6.2. RTR
6.3. Frontier Economics
6.4. European Commission, DG COMP - ACM - RTR
6.4.1. TMO - tele.ring
6.4.2. TMO - Orange
6.5. WIK
7. A success story for operators?
7.1. EE
7.2. H3G - Orange
7.3. TMO - Orange
7.4. Orange - Bouygues Telecom
8. Outlook: will it be business as usual, or is the next stop cross-border consolidation?
List of Tables
Table 1: Potential convergent footprint of Liberty Global and Vodafone
Table 2: Recent Altice M&A in Europe
Table 3: Hutchison recent M&A in Europe
Table 4: Orange recent M&A in Europe
Table 5: Major European M&A activities
Table 6: Orange + TMO to EE: Trends in revenue, EBITDA, capex, customer base and ARPU
List of Figures
Figure 1: Drivers - hurdles matrix
Figure 2: M&A matrix
Figure 3: Number of MNOs, by country
Figure 4: Acquisitions of main players in 2014-2015 and pending in 2016
Figure 5: Volume of acquisitions in Europe
Figure 6: Compared footprints and overlap of Liberty Global and Vodafone
Figure 7: Hutchison European footprint
Figure 8: Major European M&A activities in 2015 & 2016
Figure 9: EC merger decisions
Figure 10: EC assessment of Orange - Jazztel merger
Figure 11: EC assessment of H3G - O2 merger
Figure 12: Price evolution in Austria, according to AK Wien
Figure 13: Evolution of mobile prices in Austria compared to ten-country (?c') control group
Figure 14: Average revenue per minute in three- and four-player markets
Figure 15: Capex in three- and four-player markets
Figure 16: Price evolution in Austria pre- and post-merger
Figure 17: Price evolution in Austria (AT), pre- and post-merger, compared to international markets
Figure 18: Price evolution in the Netherlands, pre- and post-merger
Figure 19: Price evolution in the Netherlands. pre- and post-merger, compared to international markets (low and medium baskets)
Figure 20: WIK country rankings for consumer outcomes, competition, investment and other factors (2013)
Figure 21: Evolution of EE market share before and after merging in 2010, 2007-2014
Figure 22: Evolution of cumulative BT UK + Orange UK then EE (from 2010) indicators, 2007-2014
Figure 23: Evolution of EE customer base and ARPU, 2007-2014
Figure 24: Evolution of market shares in Austria, 2009 - 2015
Figure 25: ARPU evolution in Austria, 2009 - 2015
Figure 26: EBITDA evolution in Austria, 2011 - 2015
Figure 27: Evolution of market shares in the Netherlands, 2005 - 2015
Figure 28: ARPU evolution in the Netherlands, 2005 - 2015
Figure 29: EBITDA evolution in the Netherlands, 2005 - 2014
Figure 30: French operators Top 4 market shares at December 2015