- After its attempt at bigger collaboration in Europe failed last winter, Vodafone (LON:VOD) (VOD +0.4%) says continental regulators might look more favorably on a deal it could arrive at with Liberty Global (LBTYA +3%) now.
- "The European Commission has clearly indicated that they like the idea of stronger competitors to former incumbents," CEO Vittorio Colao said at Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS)'s conference in Barcelona.
- The two companies agreed in February to merge their Dutch operations via a joint venture; that followed the breakdown of talks over a bigger European asset swap last fall.
- Despite that, many analysts say the reasoning behind getting the two together is still there. And Colao says incumbent telecoms are still powerful.
- "They see that in each country there is a KPN, a Telecom Italia (MI:TLIT), a Deutsche Telekom (DE:DTEGn), a BT, that are at the end of the day still incredibly, I would not want to use the word dominant, but let's say influential. And you want a counter force, and we could be that counter force," he said.
Original article