Vodafone Deutschland
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | Early-1980s (asDeutsche Bundespost Kabelfernsehen) 1999 (DeTeKS) 2003 (Kabel Deutschland) |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | Manuel Cubero (CEO) |
| Products | Cable television Broadband internet Fixed telephony Mobile telephony |
| Revenue |  €1.830 billion(2012/13)[1] |
| €0.247 billion(2012/13)[1] | |
| Total assets | €2.858 billion(2012/13)[1] |
| Total equity | (€1.470 billion)(2012/13)[1] |
Number of employees | 3,157(average, 2012/13)[1] |
| Parent | Vodafone |
| Website | www |
Vodafone DeutschlandGmbH[2]is the largestcable televisionoperator inGermany.Kabel Deutschland was subject to ahostile takeover bidby theBritishVodafone Groupin September 2013; the deal was approved in December 2013 and finalised on 29 January 2014. Until the takeover the company name wasKabel Deutschland.
Company
[edit]
Vodafone Deutschland GmbH operates in 13 of the 16states of GermanyexceptBaden-Württemberg,North Rhine-WestphaliaandHesse.In 2006, of the 15.4 million households passed by their cable the company served 9.6 million, however only one third of these are direct customers of Kabel Deutschland, since especially in large apartment complexes the in-house cable networks are owned by cable service companies or housing associations.
Kabel Deutschland was founded in January 1999 by the former German telecom monopolyDeutsche Telekomoperating asDeutsche Telekom Kabel Services GmbH (DeTeKS)in order to spin off its entire cable television business as required by regulatory terms. The cable TV network was established from the early-1980s on by the German federal post office, and predecessor of Deutsche Telekom,Deutsche Bundespost.Kabel Deutschland was split into nine regional companies, of which three were sold to other investors until 2002. The remaining six were sold in 2003 to the US investment firmsProvidence Equity Partners,Apax PartnersandGoldman Sachs Capital Partners.From February 2006 to September 2010, Kabel Deutschland was majority-owned byProvidence Equity Partners.
On 24 June 2013,Vodafoneannounced a takeover bid for Kabel Deutschland valued at €7.7 billion. The board recommended the bid above that of rivalLiberty Global.[3]On 23 September the deal was approved by the European Commission, and shortly after Vodafone completed its acquisition of 76.57% of shares in the company.[4]
Products and services
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With a basic plan, Kabel Deutschland offers about 30free-to-airanalogue TVand an equal number ofFManddigital radiochannels. All analogue TV channels are available in thedigitalDVB-Cencoding format, Plus an additional 70 television channels are not available in analogue.
On top of that, about 100 digitalpay TVchannels can be ordered as a subscription-based service. This includes Germany's pay TV broadcastersSky Deutschlandas well as Kabel Deutschland's own offerings.
On 1 February 2012, Kabel Deutschland ceased to use the Astra 23.5°E position for distribution, switching to its terrestrial fibre network.[7]
Furthermore, Kabel Deutschland offers Internet (Kabel Internet,up to 200 MBit/s downstream and 12 MBit/s upstream from November 2014[8]) and telephone services (Kabel Phone).
For historical reasons, Kabel Deutschland cannot offer its products directly to all who are connected via Kabel Deutschland's network, since only one third of all viewers are direct customers. In the early-1980s, when the cable network was established, Kabel Deutschland's predecessor, Deutsche Bundespost had to leave in-house cables to other companies or the house owners. This turned out to be a significant obstacle since Kabel Deutschland now has to make single contracts with hundreds of small cable operators.
However,Trustpilotcustomer rating for Vodafone Kabel Deutschland is extremely poor. It has only 1.1 out of 5 points (reviewed by the 1930 customers). Most of the customers complained that it has several connection problems (significant latency, interruptions), poor technical help, etc.
References
[edit]- ^abcde"Annual Report 2012/2013"(PDF).Kabel Deutschland. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 9 October 2013.Retrieved10 August2013.
- ^"VODAFONE DEUTSCHLAND GMBH, UNTERFÖHRING".
- ^"Vodafone agrees 7.7bn-euro deal to buy Kabel Deutschland".BBC News. 2013-06-24.Retrieved2013-06-24.
- ^"EC approves Kabel Deutschland – Vodafone deal".Broadband TV News. 2013-09-23.Retrieved2014-03-27.
- ^"Testbild - altes Bundespost-Testbild vom Kabelfernsehen".YouTube.
- ^"Deutsche Bundespost Testbild Kabelnetz Bonn -" KOELN 8 "".YouTube.
- ^"Kabel Deutschland schaltet Satellitenzuführung endgültig ab"(in German). Digital fernsehen. February 2, 2012.
- ^"Bis zu 200 Mbit/s: Kabel Deutschland... – Kabel Deutschland".Kabel Deutschland GmbH. 2014-09-04.Retrieved2014-10-20.
External links
[edit]- Vodafone
- German companies established in 2003
- Cable television companies
- Cable television companies of Germany
- Telecommunications companies established in 2003
- Deutsche Telekom
- Private equity portfolio companies
- Providence Equity Partners companies
- 2014 mergers and acquisitions
- German subsidiaries of foreign companies