Telefónica

Spanish multinational telecommunications company

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2025 Marc Murtra is scheduled to become Chairperson of Telefónica, succeeding José María Álvarez-Pallete
January 29 2025 Telefónica hired investment bank JPMorgan to evaluate a potential sale of its Argentina business.
2023 Saudi Arabia's STC Group became Telefónica's largest shareholder, acquiring a stake worth 2.1 billion euros through shares and convertible financial instruments.
December 2023 The Spanish government announced plans to acquire up to a 10% stake in Telefónica worth $2.2 billion through the state holding company SEPI.
May 2022 Telefónica acquired BE-terna, a European cloud-based services specialist and Microsoft Dynamics partner, for €350 million. The acquisition included 1,000 staff, AI capabilities, extended service capabilities across Europe, and a cybersecurity services division, aimed at expanding Telefónica's geographic scale and digital capabilities.
June 1 2021 Virgin Media and O2 UK Ltd officially merged to form Virgin Media O2, with Telefónica holding a 50% stake and Liberty Global owning the other 50%.
May 7 2020 Liberty Global (Virgin Media) and Telefónica (O2) agreed to merge their UK businesses in a £31bn deal to form a major entertainment and telecommunications company.
August 2019 Millicom completed the transaction to acquire Telefónica's operations in Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.
February 2019 Millicom announced the purchase of Telefónica's operations in Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua for US$1,650 Million.
January 24 2019 América Móvil announced plans to acquire Telefónica's Guatemalan operations for US$333 million.
2018 Telefónica and China Unicom established a new partnership to combine their services and networks in the Internet of Things (IoT), enabling clients to deploy IoT products and services across China, Europe, and Latin America using a single global IoT SIM card.
2017 Telefónica launched OnLife Networks, a strategic initiative aimed at driving innovation within the company and transforming its technological approach.
September 2017 Nokia and Telefónica signed an agreement to evaluate technologies for efficient network evolution to 5G, aligning with Telefónica's business objectives.
August 2017 The brand license agreement for O2 was extended to 2022, with a potential additional 5-year extension to 2027 available.
2016 José María Álvarez-Pallete becomes Chairperson of Telefónica, starting a tenure that is set to last until 2025
May 11 2016 The European Commission officially blocked the proposed acquisition of O2 by Li Ka-shing, arguing the merger would reduce consumer choice and increase service costs.
2015 Telefónica launched LTE (4G) mobile network in Panama, with initial coverage in Panama City, Arraijan, Chorrera, and extending to Buenaventura Beach.
June 2015 Telefónica sold its shares in Telecom Italia to Vivendi as part of the sale of Global Village Telecom (GVT).
June 2015 Created a separate joint venture company named Telefónica Global Solutions France, with dedicated marketing and sales teams to offer service packages from both Telefónica and Bouygues Telecom to corporate clients.
March 2015 O2 was merged into Hutchison Whampoa's subsidiary Three Ireland, completing the acquisition process initiated in 2013.
January 2015 Li Ka-shing entered into talks with Telefónica to buy O2 for around £10.25 billion, with the intention of merging it with his subsidiary Three.
2014 Telefónica, through Movistar, became the title sponsor of Yamaha Motor Racing in MotoGP, a sponsorship that would continue until 2018.
October 1 2014 Telefónica purchased competitor E-Plus in Germany, reducing its stake in the subsidiary to 62.1%.
September 2014 Telefónica confirmed its intention to sell its shares in Telecom Italia following the purchase of Global Village Telecom (GVT) in Brazil from Vivendi.
2013 Telefónica announced it would sell its stake in the company to PPF.
June 24 2013 Telefónica announced the sale of its O2 Ireland mobile business to Hutchison Whampoa's subsidiary 3 for at least €780 million ($1 billion) in cash.
April 15 2012 Telefónica shut down TVA and Ajacto telecommunications brands, unifying them under the Vivo brand in Brazil.
2011 The company was renamed to O2 Czech Republic.
2011 Telefónica's Wayra subsidiary was first launched in Latin America and Spain to provide seed investment and mentoring to new technology startups.
2011 Telefónica established a joint venture with Bouygues Telecom in France to offer global telecommunication services packages to multinational companies.
2011 Telefónica began sponsoring the Movistar Team, a Spanish UCI ProTour professional cycling team, marking their entry into cycling team sponsorship.
2011 Telefónica began operations in Costa Rica under its Movistar branding.
2011 Telefónica maintained its commitment to sailing by sponsoring a team in the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race.
2011 After the partnership completion, Telefónica acquired a 9.7% stake in China Unicom, while China Unicom obtained a 1.4% stake in Telefónica.
May 12 2011 Telefónica signed a 15-year contract (with potential 10-year extension) with the government of Costa Rica to operate telecommunications services.
January 2011 Telefónica and China Unicom agreed to a further $500 million tie-up, expanding their previous partnership.
January 2011 Telefónica began operating in the Peruvian market under the Movistar brand, solidifying its mobile telecommunications presence in the country.
July 28 2010 Telefónica agreed to buy Portugal Telecom's stake in Vivo for €7.5 billion, increasing its original offer by €1.8 billion after months of negotiations.
July 24 2010 Telefónica announced that its Speedy broadband service had exceeded three million subscribers.
June 2010 Telefónica Europe sold Manx Telecom.
February 2010 Telefónica CEO Cesar Alierta publicly stated the company's intention to charge Google and other search engines for network usage during a meeting in Bilbao, Spain, arguing that these companies were benefiting from their network without contributing to expenses.

This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article Telefónica, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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