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New report claims Vodafone has agreed acquisition of You Broadband.
Vodafone India has acquired fixed broadband provider You Broadband and will announce details of the deal in the next few weeks, according to a local press report published at the weekend.
The telco paid 3.5 billion-4 billion rupees (€47 million-€53 million) for the Mumbai-based Internet firm, the Hindu Business Line claimed, without identifying its source.
The paper said neither company had responded to questions about the deal.
The deal has been in the works for six months, it said.
Indeed, a month ago separate Indian press reports claimed the pair had already brokered a deal. The Economic Times reported that Vodafone had agreed to pay INR4 billion for You Broadband and had applied for the approval of India’s Foreign Investment Promotion Board.
However, no formal announcement has been forthcoming.
Should the press reports prove to be correct, the acquisition is in line with Vodafone’s strategy in other markets of boosting its mobile offering with fixed assets as consumers increasingly look to take multiple services from a single provider.
India may not be as advanced as Western markets in that respect, but its major telcos are gearing up for the launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is rolling out a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network in addition to a nationwide 4G service.
Late last week Reliance Jio reported having signed up half a million users to its trial 4G service, but has yet to give any firm dates for commercial launch.
