Telefonica to sell its Irish operations to Three for $1.1 billion

Think you're carrying a tad too much debt? By contrast, Spain's telecom giant Telefónica wants to reduce its red ink to 47 billion euros ($62 billion) by the end of the year, so it's decided to sell its Irish mobile and broadband business to Hutchison Whampoa's Three for 850 million euros ($1.1 billion). If regulators approve the deal, it'll let Telefónica hack about 750 million euros of debt from its books, while giving Three a 37.5 percent share of the nation's mobile business and a strong number two position behind Vodafone. The deal follows a £200 million ($273 million) sale of Telefónica's fixed phone line business to Sky, and considering the whopping level of debt, may be just a start.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Internet

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