Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom swap assets

Deutsche Telekom agreed late Wednesday to acquire Orange Netherlands from France Telecom.

Under the deal, the German carrier also agreed to sell its Spanish broadband operation, Ya.com, to France Telecom.

Deutsche Telekom is reported to be paying around Eur1.3bn for the Dutch operation, but will receive Eur320m for the sale of Ya.com.

In the Netherlands, the combination of Orange and Deutsche Telekom’s existing T-Mobile unit will create a new number two operator with about 4.56 million subscribers. The merged entity will displace Vodafone with around 3 million subscribers but will still flag behind market leader KPN with 7.3 million. Orange Netherlands also has around 612,000 fixed line internet users.

France Telecom’s acquisition of Ya.com will give it an additional 400,000 internet customers, strengthening its second place in the market with 1.4 million subscribers. The move will leave just four broadband players in Spain – Telefonica, Ya, Jazztel and Ono.