1996 to 2000

This page highlights major mergers and acquisitions in the connectivity sector (including fixed phone line, mobile phone and cable service operators) from 1996 to 2000.

It covers -

• 1996
• 1997
• 1998
• 1999
• 2000

Context is provided by the timeline and note on M&A in other sectors elsewhere on this site.

     1996

US Telecommunications Act

Nynex and Bell Atlantic merge

AT&T spins off Bell Laboratories as basis of Lucent Technologies

AT&T sells NCR

WorldCom buys UUNet and MFS Communications for US$12bn

     1997

Daewoo invests US$1.4bn in Kazaktelekom

Southwestern Bell buys Pacific Telesis for US$16.5bn, becomes SBC

     1998

WorldCom buys MCI for US$40bn and Brooks Fiber Properties for US$1.2bn

Telefónica buys Telesp (Brazil) for US$4.9bn

GTE and Bell Atlantic announce US$53bn merger as Verizon

MCI buys Embratel for US$2.2bn

SBC buys Southern New England Telecommunications

Carlyle buys Neptune Communications

Nortel buys Bay Networks for US$7.68bn

WorldCom pays US$885m for Global Marine unit od Cable & Wireless

     1999

SBC buys Ameritech for US$60bn

Pacific Telecom Cable merges with Neptune Communications

Global Crossing buys Neptune Communications from Carlyle

Olivetti buys Telecom Italia for US$64bn

Nortel buys Qtera for US$3.25bn

Nortel buys CoreTek for US$1.43bn

Carlyle buys Bredbandsbolaget AB

BCE absorbs Teleglobe for C$9.6bn

AT&T buys MediaOne for US$62bn

Carlyle buys Vidéotron Telecom

AT&T buys TCI for US$54bn

Qwest absorbs USWest in US$36.5bn merger

Marconi pays US$6bn for Reltec and Fore Systems

Telecom Italia pays US$1.1bn for 38% of Empresa Nacional de Telefonos (ENTEL) (Chile)

Deutsche Telekom buys One2One.com in UK and Siris in France

Mannesmann buys control of Omnitel and Infostrade (Italy)

Mannesmann buys Orange (UK) for US$31bn

Telecom NZ buys 78% of AAPT

Ozemail acquired by WorldCom for $520m

     2000

Vodafone buys Mannesmann

France Telecom pays €40bn for Orange mobile network in UK

VoiceStream buys Aerial Communications for US$5.6bn

Voicestream buys Omnipoint for US$7.2bn

Microsoft invests £1.5 billion in UK cable operator Telewest

Sprint sells stake in GlobalOne for US$1.4bn

US and EU regulators block WorldCom US$115bn merger with Sprint

BCE buys CTV for C$2bn

NTT pays US$5bn for Verio

US$53bn merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic as Verizon

Deutsche Telekom buys Ya.com (Spain) for €550m

    next page  (2001 to 2005)