Fixed Mobile Convergence

Telecoms operator Telefonica, serving much of Europe and Latin America, has reportedly increased its offer to buy a 50 percent stake in Brazilian operator Brasilcel to €6.5 billion (or about $8 billion USD).

Telefonica (News - Alert) already owns a 10 percent stake in Brasilcel, which is also owned by co-investor Portugal Telecom.

Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Brasilcel provides telecommunication services primarily in Brazil. It offers voicemail and voicemail notification, call forwarding, caller identification, broadband Internet access, short message service, and instant messaging services.

Telefonica had previously offered €5.7 billion for the 50 percent stake however its offer was rejected, leading it to consider a hostile takeover. That remains an option if a deal can't be worked out between all parties.

According to published reports, Brasilcel owns 60 percent of Vivo, which leads the Brazilian mobile market with about 54 million subscribers.

Telefonica is eager to merge the Vivo operation with its Brazilian fixed arm Telesp in order to gain new operational efficiencies. Portugal Telecom (News - Alert), however, reportedly has concerns about the deal.

Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard