TELECOM NOW A COUNTY IN THE OLIVETTI KINGDOM
Olivetti buys up Italian telephones
After a long and dirty hostile takeover battle, Olivetti has acquired a 51% holding in Telecom Italia, Italy's biggest telecommunications company.
The Public Acquisition Offer, which has been described as the biggest ever in European finance, costs Olivetti a total of 59 billion lire ($32 billion) in cash and Telecom shares.
Gianni Agnelli, president of the Fiat company, speaking of the takeover and what it will mean said, "I wish Olivetti all the best. It was a tough battle, with important implications for the future, and a heck of a lot of debts to be paid off."
According to theLa Repubblica newspaper, owned by Olivetti, the takeover was "A victory for Italian capitalism. There can no longer be out-of-date restrictive practices to guarantee inviolable protection."
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