The offer from Swisscom, i.e. the Swiss operator that controls Fastweb, for Vodafone Italia poses a serious question from an employment point of view. If the operation were successful it would create a fixed and mobile telephone operator from 7 billion in revenues and around 9 thousand employees (around 6 thousand Vodafone, the rest Fastweb). From the numbers it is clear that the combination of the two entities would lead to a manager similar in number of subscribers to Tim but very different in terms of number of employees.
Tim (without the network) would still have double the employees of Fastweb-Vodafone
In fact, after the spin-off of the landline, Tim would be left with it at least 18 thousand of the 40 thousand current employees. A notable difference compared to the 9 thousand of the combined Fastweb-Vodafone. While as a fixed, mobile and business services manager the situation would be similar. In fact, the combination of the two companies would produce a manager with one significant market share in mobile, already today Tim and Vodafone are similar with over 27%. In the fixed sector, by combining the market shares, we would arrive at almost 30% with a very important presence in the so-called broadband, i.e. users who have ultra-broadband and fiber connections. For the record, Telecom has 40%.
The fears of the unions
Even in the food sector business services, where Tim focuses on Enterprises, the two managers destined for marriage are already, individually, very strong. We can therefore understand the growing fears of the trade unions regarding employment stability: not only with regard to Tim after the spin-off of the network but also in the case of an agreement and integration between Fastweb and Vodafone. Of course, Tim Brasil remains included in the so-called ServCo, i.e. the company that should be born after the unbundling of the network, which can count on growing revenues, +10% in 2023 with a turnover of 4.5 billion euros, but certainly not enough to support the Italian parent company.
The role of Ilad
The consolidation of the market could produce some results, unwelcome to users, in terms of tariffs which could be increased, at least in the operators’ hopes. But it certainly wouldn’t be simple because on the mobile (but also fixed) front Iliad would remain a difficult competitor to beat. Also the French company founded by Xavier Niel had made an offer for Vodafone Italia but only for 50% of the company. In this regard, second Equityafter Iliad’s investment in Sweden where it took over 20%, for 1.6 billion, of the operator Tele2, it could try to acquire Vivendi’s share in Timi.e. 23.7%.