Neuf Cegetel is in exclusive discussions to acquire Deutsche Telekom's French broadband subsidiary Club Internet. At the end of 2006 Neuf Cegetel had 2.172 million broadband subscribers, 106 thousand subscribers in back of Free. Club Internet's 570 ADSL subscribers would push Neuf Cegetel ahead Free into the number to position in France.
There were reports that Iliad/Free was also bidding for Club Internet but dropped out as the price went up.
Neuf Cegetel has used merger and acquisition as its primary strategy for catching and passing Free. The first step was the merger of Neuf and Cegetel two years ago. Last year it acquired AOL's customer base in France.
This acquisition will mean that Microsoft will lose one of its leading deployments. Neuf Cegetel has a well honed, competitive IPTV offering and is unlikely to switch to Microsoft.
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2 comments:
whose middleware are they using?
If they do switch Club internet from MSTV, that means that the huge french IPTV market will become MSTV-free?
Neuf Cegetel is using middleware that it developed together with its set-top box company Netgem.
Club Internet is Microsoft's only IPTV customer in France. BT, Deutsche Telekom, and Swisscom have deployed Microsoft. Telecom Italia still has Microsoft in its lab.
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