Danish telecommunications company
TDC Holding
A/S
or
TDC Group
(formerly
T
ele
D
anmark
C
ommunications) is a Danish telecommunications company dating back to 1879. TDC Group is the largest telecommunications company in
Denmark
. The company's headquarters are located in
Copenhagen
.
TDC Holding is the
holding company
of two separate companies which were
spun-off
from TDC;
Nuuday A/S
and
TDC NET A/S
. All consumer related services and brands were placed under Nuuday, and the ownership and maintenance of physical infrastructure of mobile antennas as well as coax and fibre optical lines were placed under TDC NET.
History
[
edit
]
Early History
[
edit
]
In 1879,
Kjøbenhavns By- og Hustelegraf
was established by telegraph engineer Severin Lauritzen and telegraphist Th. Thaulow. The company set up private telephone lines over shorter distances, for example between offices and factories. In addition, it offered telegraph service in Copenhagen using small telegraph stations around the city that could communicate by telephone.
On 21 August 1882,
Carl Frederik Tietgen
acquired the Copenhagen division of
International Bell Telephone Company
, an American-owned telephone exchange on Lille Kongensgade in Copenhagen, for DKK 200,000 and founded
Kjøbenhavns Telefon Aktieselskab (KTS)
, later
Kjøbenhavns Telefon Aktieselskab (KTAS)
.
In 1927, the
Post- og Telegrafvæsenet
(P&T;
lit.
the Postal and Telegraph Service) was created as Denmark's government-run
postal, telegraph and telephone service
, from a merger of the
Danish Post Office
and the Danish Telegraph Service. Reforms to the P&T from 1986 lead to it being split into one Directorate-General and six state-owned enterprises.
Expansion and Merger
[
edit
]
In November 1990, the
Folketing
passed a law that paved the way for a nationwide Danish telecom, spun out from the P&T. The company was named
Tele Danmark
and was the parent company for the existing regional companies (KTAS, Jydsk Telefon, Tele Sønderjylland, Fyns Telefon, and Rigstelefonen).
[2]
[3]
In 1995, the regional companies were merged into Tele Danmark, and the first nationwide cable TV company, Tele Danmark Kabel TV was created.
[4]
Five years later, in 2000, Tele Danmark changed its name to TDC.
[5]
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, TDC developed from a traditional and mainly Danish provider of landline and mobile telephony services into a Danish-based
European
provider of communications.
Deregulation
of the Danish telecommunications market in 1996 created a highly competitive
[
clarification needed
]
market. In January 2000, TDC got a new logo with five ovals in red, yellow, green, turquoise and blue colour. In December 2000 Tele Danmark changed its name to TDC. At the same time it demerged into a parent holding company and a number of subsidiaries with the purpose of increasing customer focus, creating greater transparency and achieving faster time to market for products and services. In 2004, the Danish telecommunications market was fully liberalized. TDC was partly
privatized
in 1994 and fully privatized in 1998, and at year-end 2004, TDC's shares were held mainly by institutions and retail investors in Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States.
[
citation needed
]
In 2006 TDC adopted a new logo which consists of a cursive rounded-rectangle in blue colour. The text "TDC" appears in the rectangle and remind that the letter "D" is cut a little bit. A group of
private equity
firms under the banner Nordic Telephone Company (NTC) offered to buy TDC for a price of about 9.1 billion
Euro
. Among the group were companies such as
Blackstone
,
Permira
,
Apax Partners
and
KKR
. The company bought 88% of the shares, but failed to buy more than 90% of the shares and was thus unable to remove the company completely from the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Also in 2006, TDC pulled out of the UK mobile telephone market, with the closure of their joint venture with
EasyGroup
, EasyMobile,
[6]
which had launched in 2004.
[7]
In 2007, TDC folded its subsidiaries back into the parent company with the exception of TDC Kabel TV, which continued as an independent legal identity.
[8]
Later in the year, on 1 October 2007, TDC Kabel TV changed its name to YouSee to signal a focus on more than just TV.
[9]
In 2010 Nordic Telephone Company (NTC) began the process of selling its shares in TDC on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, initially reducing its 88 percent holding of the company to less than 60 percent.
[10]
In 2012, TDC had a total revenue of 26 billion DKK, and employed around 9,000 people in
Denmark
. In 2014, TDC purchased the Norwegian telecommunications firm
Get AS
for 12.5 billion
DKK
.
[11]
Recent Years
[
edit
]
In 2016, TDC purchased Danish IT- and telecom provider Cirque A/S for an unspecified amount.
[12]
[13]
On 1 July 2016 the TDC consumer business was merged with YouSee, migrating the entire TDC customer base of IPTV, broadband and mobile consumers to YouSee.
[14]
The mobile phone network continues to use the 'TDC' name, as its built by TDC Group instead of YouSee.
[15]
TDC Group and
Modern Times Group
announced on 1 February 2018 a plan for TDC Group to buy MTG Nordics to create a converged business with a new name and brand.
[16]
[17]
A week later, a takeover bid from the Australian infrastructure group
Macquarie
and three Danish pension funds; PFA, PKA and
ATP
was leaked to the public, which TDC had rejected.
[18]
The consortium clarified that the proposed MTG merger was not part of their strategy.
[19]
In February the consortium launched an improved take-over offer, which TDC Group now recommended.
[20]
The proposed MTG merger was called off.
[21]
The consortium got EU approval for their takeover bid on 28 March 2018.
[22]
In early April, the consortium announced they had acquired more than 90% of the total shares of TDC Group, making a
delisting
possible.
[23]
On 20 January 2020, TDC announced that their lower-cost
flanker brand
Fullrate
would be shut down and the customers be migrated to YouSee.
[24]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Group Annual Report 2014"
(PDF)
. TDC
. Retrieved
20 August
2015
.
- ^
Madsen, Erling.
"Fjernsynets historie"
(PDF)
.
Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen
. Erling Madsen/BFE
. Retrieved
19 March
2017
.
- ^
"TDC A/S"
. Den Store Danske
. Retrieved
19 March
2017
.
- ^
"TDCs historie"
. TDC
. Retrieved
19 March
2017
.
- ^
Bertelsen, Jens (14 December 2000).
"Tele Danmark ændrer navn til TDC"
. Computerworld
. Retrieved
19 March
2017
.
- ^
"TDC lukker easyMobile i England - fortsætter i Tyskland"
. BT
. Retrieved
28 February
2023
.
- ^
Krøyer, Kent.
"TDC starter EasyMobile i England"
.
Ing.dk
. Retrieved
28 February
2023
.
- ^
Hemmingsen, Mikkel (1 May 2007).
"TDC opsluger sine datterselskaber"
. Computerworld
. Retrieved
19 March
2017
.
- ^
"TDC Kabel TV skifter navn"
. TV2. 26 September 2007
. Retrieved
19 March
2017
.
- ^
"Bloomberg Business"
.
Bloomberg.com
. Archived from
the original
on 12 December 2010
. Retrieved
29 July
2015
.
- ^
"Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions"
.
Reuters
. Retrieved
29 July
2015
.
- ^
Gubagaras, Mark Anthony.
"Denmark's TDC acquires business communications provider"
. SP Global
. Retrieved
28 February
2023
.
- ^
Jørgensen, Steen.
"TDC køber kommunikationsløsningen Cirque"
.
Mobil.nu
. Retrieved
28 February
2023
.
- ^
Breinstrup, Thomas (27 January 2016).
"Presset TDC bliver til YouSee i Danmark"
. Retrieved
20 March
2017
.
- ^
"Nyt navn: TDC er blevet til YouSee"
. 27 June 2016
. Retrieved
20 March
2017
.
- ^
Briel, Robert (1 February 2018).
"TDC buys MTG Nordics to form converged business"
. Broadband TV News
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
Hummelmose, Jens E. (1 February 2018).
"Fusion: Ny underholdningskæmpe med YouSee, Viasat, TV3 og Viaplay"
. Rec.dk
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
"Afvist TDC-bud med til at løfte aktieværdi med fem milliarder"
. Berlingske. 8 February 2018
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
Madsen, Thomas Nygaard (8 February 2018).
"Konsortium har ikke haft MTG-fusion som en del af planen for TDC-opkøb"
. MediaWatch
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
Briel, Robert (13 February 2018).
"TDC recommends new takeover offer"
. Broadband TV News
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
Hummelmose, Jens E (12 February 2018).
"TDC dropper opkøb af MTG"
. Rec.dk
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
"Opkøbsønske godkendt: Vejen er banet for TDC-salg"
. Berlingske. 28 March 2018
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
"Nye ejere klar til at afnotere TDC"
. Berlingske. 9 April 2018
. Retrieved
9 April
2018
.
- ^
"Fullrate lægges sammen med YouSee"
. Digitalt.tv
. Retrieved
20 January
2020
.