Telecom Italia (TIM) has announced the appointment of Vivendi’s chief convergence officer Amos Genish as its new general manager for operations, confirming earlier reports. Genish previously headed Vivo, the Brazilian unit of Spain’s Telefonica, a position he took following the merger of Vivo and broadband operator GVT. Co-founded by Genish, GVT was acquired by Vivendi in 2009 and then sold to Telefonica in 2014. In a statement released shortly after confirming the exit of CEO Flavio Cattaneo after just 16 months, TIM said Genish will now oversee all of the company’s operations and be based in Rome. Vivendi CEO and new TIM chairman Arnaud de Puyfontaine is temporarily taking over most of Cattaneo’s responsibilities.
In a conference call following the publication of TIM’s first-half results, de Puyfontaine said further announcements on governance will be made in September. According to Reuters, he went on to comment that a combination of TIM with Mediaset was “not on the agenda” even though Vivendi now owns around 29 percent of the broadcaster, but that a plan to set up a joint venture between TIM and Vivendi's pay-TV unit Canal+ would be examined next month.
He added that the idea of separating TIM's fixed-line network – a possibility the Italian government is said to favour – was "interesting" and "something that will be discussed in future", but was not part of the company's current business plan. De Puyfontaine subsequently told Italian daily La Stampa that Vivendi has no plans to merge TIM with Orange nor to make it French. "A merger with Orange? I want to be clear: it will not happen. Telecom Italia will be a consolidator, not the prey,” he said.
Earlier TIM reported a 6.4 percent year-on-year rise in second-quarter revenues to EUR 5.0 billion, boosted by 500,000 new mobile customers. The presentation of the results was the last act of Flavio Cattaneo, who left following a dispute with top shareholder Vivendi. Italian reports suggested Cattaneo fell out with the French company precisely because of its plan to appoint Genish at his side.
