AT&T eyes Europe for a future expansion
The US wireless market is already consolidated. That’s why AT&T is looking for a possible expansion across the Atlantic, the company CEO Randall Stephenson has commented. At an investor conference in New York, Stephenson said that AT&T was looking for a possible carrier acquisition in Europe, and he saw much more opportunities outside the States; since the market in the US is already consolidated. He gave an example, saying that the Verizon’s acquisition of Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless has opened his eyes.
AT&T has had some bad experience with acquisitions in the past. Two years ago, the company tried to buy T-Mobile, but the deal wasn’t approved by the government. The US officials said that this acquisition would be a step back and will lead to even more consolidation in the wireless market. On the other hand, the market in Europe is still not so consolidated, and the possibilities are much more.
In Europe, AT&T will have a great number of possible carriers to a buy in different countries. Each of these carriers would be an option for AT&T to expand overseas. Stephenson stated that AT&T would invest in the networks and thus increase the data usage, in which Stephenson saw a great potential.
On the other hand, a future European expansion would face many barriers. The EU market is different – the customers and the public policy are different too. There will be also licenses issues, competitions issues in some countries as well as many other small problems AT&T need to consider. One is clear; on the already developed US marker AT&T doesn’t have much potential to increase its revenues. The only option is either to expand its business as Sprint did, or to expand overseas with an acquiring in Europe.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
