沃达丰10亿镑收购大东环球

UK mobile phone giant Vodafone has agreed to buy telecoms group Cable & Wireless¹ Worldwide (C&WW) in a deal valuing the firm at just over £1bn.

英国移动手机巨头沃达丰同意亿10亿多英镑的价格收购大东环球电信公司。

Vodafone was left as C&WW's only suitor after India's Tata Communications ended its interest in the firm last week.

Under the terms of the deal, Vodafone will pay 38 pence per C&WW share, giving the firm a value of £1.044bn.

The takeover will add a UK fixed-line network to Vodafone's existing mobile network.

In a statement, Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao said: "The acquisition of Cable & Wireless Worldwide creates a leading integrated player in the enterprise segment of the UK communications market and brings attractive cost savings² to our UK and international operations."

C&WW specialises in networking and broadband for corporate³ clients, including Tesco and the UK police service.

It split from Cable & Wireless Communications (C&WC) in 2010 but has struggled since the seperation. It has issued a number of profit warnings and is now on its third chief executive.

C&WC offers telecoms services to consumers and businesses in almost 30 markets around the world including Jersey⁴, Guernsey, the Caribbean and Panama.

The 38p per share offer represents a 92% premium⁵ to the level of C&WW's share price before the bid interest became known in February.

Reports have suggested that, if the deal goes through, Vodafone will sell off C&WW's undersea cable assets.