Telefónica (Telefonica)

Telefónica S.A. is a Spanish telecommunications company.

The company is one of the largest companies in the traditional and mobile cellular sector in the world, the fourth in the world in terms of customer base and the sixth in terms of market capitalization.

History

2024: Termination of 3,421 employees

In early January 2024, Telefonica announced the dismissal of 3,421 employees. The company will spend 1.3 billion euros before taxes to pay severance benefits, as well as to implement other measures related to staff cuts.

According to Reuters, citing a statement from the Spanish telecommunications company, the planned reduction in the number of personnel will occur in the first quarter of 2024.

Telefonica will lay off thousands of employees and spend €1.3bn on it

It is noted that negotiations with trade unions lasted several weeks, and the parties managed to reach agreements. One of them suggests that the dismissal will affect employees aged 56 and those who have worked for the company for more than 15 years.

Telefonica estimates that thanks to state optimization, the company will be able to save about 285 million euros per year, starting in 2025. It is emphasized that layoffs are part of the company's three-year strategic plan to increase profitability by reducing capital expenditures, increasing revenue and reducing total expenses.

By early January 2024, Telefonica is the largest telecom operator in Spain. In the country, the company employs about 21 thousand people, and around the world - more than 103 thousand employees.

The layoffs at Telefonica were a continuation of a long-term trend in European telecom, which has seen weak revenue growth, intense competition, high costs and excessive market impact from company management. Since 2016, Telefonica has cut more than 23,500 jobs worldwide, including by selling assets, pooling resources with competitors and shutting down old technologies. The company expects to start benefiting financially from a new wave of layoffs from 2024.^[1]

2023: Saudi telecom operator buys 9.9% of Telefonica for €2.1 billion

On September 5, 2023, Saudi operator Saudi Telecom announced an agreement to acquire a 9.9 percent stake in Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica SA. The transaction amount is approximately €2.1 billion.

Under the terms of the contract, Saudi Telecom, a Saudi government-controlled operator, will acquire about 569.3 million Telefonica shares. The deal will be financed with its own funds and a bank loan, and its completion will require regulatory approvals.

Saudi Telecom Announces Agreement to Acquire 9.9 Percent Stake of Spanish Telecoms Firm Telefonica SA

Bloomberg notes that the signed agreement will attract the attention of the Spanish government, which considers Telefonica as a company of strategic importance that operates telecom infrastructure. The Saudi Telecom deal could have implications for the defense sector and, ultimately, for Spain's security. The acquisition of more than 5% of the shares may require the approval of the country's cabinet. Telefonica's two anchor investors are Spanish banks CaixaBank SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, but their combined stake in the operator is less than 10%.

Saudi Telecom, in turn, is 64% owned by the Saudi Sovereign Fund, which is headed by Crown Prince Mohammed ibn Salman Al Saud. The operator seeks to diversify its activities. To do this, the company created a new division for the operation of cellular towers, separated the divisions of data centers and Internet services into independent structures, and also forms the digital bank STC Pay. Commenting on the conclusion of the agreement with Telefonica, the management of Saudi Telecom said that it did not plan to gain control over the Spanish operator. The deal is seen as an "attractive investment opportunity."^[2]

2021

Geprom Industrial Automation Integrator Purchase

At the end of December 2021, Telefonica Tech acquired Geprom. The financial component of this transaction of the company decided not to disclose. Read more here.

Sale of telecommunications tower business to American Tower Corporation for 7.7 billion euros

In mid-January 2021, telecommunications company Telefonica SA signed an agreement with the largest mobile tower operator in the United States, American Tower Corporation (ATC), to sell its telecommunications tower business in Europe and Latin America, Telxius. The deal is valued at 7.7 billion euros. Read more here.

2020

Buying Oi Movel's cellular business

In mid-December 2020, TIM Participacoes, Telefonica Brasil SA and Claro Brasil won an auction to acquire Oi Movel, the cellular business of the largest Brazilian telecom operator Oi. The total purchase price amounted to 16.5 billion reais ($3.23 billion), and the presented group of operators was the only participant in the auction. Read more here.

Using a Blockchain Solution from Clear

On July 13, 2020, it became known that three mobile operators - Telefónica Spain (), () Deutsche Telekom Germany and () - Vodafone Great Britain completed testing and began to use it fully, which solution blockchain will allow automatic payments for. roaming It is assumed that this project will reduce capital costs and provide more efficient profit accounting and mutual calculations. More. here

2018: The start of the transition to 5G networks

In January 2018, it became known that Spain's transition to 5G networks will be headed by the country's largest telecom operator Telefonica. The company said that 5G networks will begin to launch in 2018, VentureBeat reports. Telefonica's technology partners will be IT companies Nokia and Ericsson^[3].

Telefonica said it would start rolling out 5G in 2018, turning Spanish cities into large-scale laboratories to test the new communication standard. The country has a 5G Technological Cities project, in which companies, ordinary residents, and guests of Spanish cities should benefit from new high-speed communication networks.

Networks will begin to be deployed, starting with small and little-known cities to foreigners. It is much easier and faster to adapt such people to cover the towers with a new communication standard, it is more convenient to conduct tests in them in order to use already debugged solutions in large cities. Telefonica expects its networks to be able to provide data transfer rates of 1-10 Gbps, 1-5 ms latency and a hundred times more connected devices than current generation networks.

Wireless performance is expected to outperform the broadband home Internet by 3x. 5G will allow more effective testing of unmanned vehicles, provide travel services in VR and AR, distribution, IoT and Internet access in hard-to-reach areas. Areas that 5G will play into the hands of include telemedicine, industrial automation and remote control of everything that can be imagined: from robotic surgeons to important infrastructure.

2017: Investment in NFWare

In March 2017, Telefónica, together with a number of investment funds, invested in NFWare. The total volume of investments from all investors of this round amounted to $2 million. Read more here.

Notes