On the march

Reuters is citing sources in the Dutch media as saying that Deutsche Telekom and Versatel are in advanced discussions, and that Betten has gone so far as to publish the text of what it claimed was a press release from Versatel on the subject. Versatel has told Reuters that it has not issued any statement, and would not comment on any market speculation of negotiations. I'm not confident enough to say that a wink is as good as a nod, but if this story is in fact true, then I think we have to ask ourselves what's next in terms of consolidation. I assume that the rationale for such a deal for DT in the Netherlands would be around issues of mobile/broadband convergence (no broadband presence, weak position in mobile, Flarion trial in the Hague). If so, then we are right back to our PTT mutual annihilation scenario, and the short list of likely beneficiaries.

UPDATE: It would appear that the phantom press release was a hoax.