Vodafone noted that the talks do not extend beyond the creation of a joint venture in the Netherlands. Last year Vodafone and Liberty Global held discussions on a wider exchange of assets or cooperation across their footprint in Europe, but were unable to reach an agreement.
The statement from Vodafone follows a report from Bloomberg that the two companies had reopened talks on possible asset swaps or co-investments in various European countries. The Netherlands is a focus of the talks, one unnamed source told Bloomberg, adding that if Liberty is unable to reach a deal with Vodafone, it would consider making a takeover bid for T-Mobile Netherlands in order to expand in the mobile market.
Ziggo is already active in the mobile market through a MVNO deal with Vodafone, but counts only a small mobile customer base. Vodafone has tried to expand into the fixed market in the Netherlands by launching services over KPN's network, but has also struggled to build up a significant customer base. A merger of Vodafone Netherlands and Ziggo would make the two much stronger against KPN in the important multi-play market, where quad-play subscriptions, including both mobile and fixed services, are gaining traction in the Dutch market.
A merger between Ziggo and Vodafone also could generate significant synergies for the companies. According to research from the Telecompaper Consumer Panel in the third quarter of 2015, 46 percent of Vodafone's mobile customers already take fixed broadband from Ziggo and 52 percent subscribe to Ziggo TV services.
