The two units serves the public administration and small & medium enterprise (SME) sectors. Specifically, the public administration business unit provides communication services to a number of ministries and agencies of the national government, as well as regional and local governments.
While the SME business unit offers connectivity and cloud services to small and medium enterprises across Italy.
The purchase of the public administration unit will expand TIM’s supply of communication and connectivity services, accelerating the Italian public administration’s digitalisation journey.
At the same time, the planned integration of the small & medium business unit will further diversify TIM’s ICT and cloud solutions portfolio for small and medium businesses. The agreement also includes customer support for the SME business unit, delivered by BT’s Palermo Contact Center.
The news forms part of BT’s ongoing transformation of its global services unit as refocuses on next-generation networking, cloud and security services to multinational organisations. The UK-based telco will still retain a strong presence in Italy with a range of offerings including points to its global network and data centres.
In August, BT Group confirmed that it was preparing to defend against a reported £15 billion takeover bid.
According to Sky News, the company’s board has instructed its City advisers Goldman Sachs to update its bid defence strategy against such buyout from industry competitors and investment firms.
The news comes after the Group suspended its 2019/20 final dividend and all dividends for 2020/21, back in May due to due to the impact of Covid-19.
Together, the two public administration and small & medium enterprise units generated revenues of approximately €90 million as reported in the group’s March 2020 financial results.
Subject to consultations with trade unions and approval from relevant authorities, the deal is expected to complete by Q1 of 2021.
