Deutsche Telekom has sold its stake in the European satellite operator EUTELSAT S.A. The agreement has been signed today with De Agostini S.p.A., a leading Italian publishing group. Deutsche Telekom's 10.87 percent stake will be placed in a newly founded holding company in Luxembourg, in which Deutsche Telekom and De Agostini hold a joint interest, together with 21 Invest. The transaction value is approx. EUR 210 million.
About De Agostini S.p.A. De Agostini S.p.A. is the largest privately owned Italian publishing and editorial group with principal operations in 32 countries. It recorded sales and EBITDA of Euro 1.178,3 million and Euro 31 million in 2001 respectively.
De Agostini Group's activities have been diversified over the years with new financial investments, important partnership agreements and a focused development programme in the communications sector.
De Agostini Group holds stakes in numerous companies and businesses. Over the past few years De Agostini has invested in a number of ventures in innovative, high-growth sectors, both in Italy and abroad.
About Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom is Europe's largest communications company and one of the largest communications carriers worldwide based on 2001 revenues of 48.3 billion Euro. The company is active in four key growth segments of the global telecommunications market: mobile communications, network access services, consumer Internet services and integrated IT and telecommunications solutions. Through T-Mobile , Deutsche Telekom's mobile telephony subsidiary, and through other majority and minority shareholdings, Deutsche Telekom serves currently worldwide more than 76 million mobile telephony customers worldwide. In 2001, Deutsche Telekom completed the acquisition of U.S. mobile telephony companies VoiceStream Wireless and Powertel Inc., forming the first transatlantic wireless communications operator utilizing the GSM digital wireless technology standard. Deutsche Telekom offers its customers a complete range of fixed-line voice telephony products and services through more than 57 million access lines. The company is a leading provider of high-speed digital access lines, with about 3 million new asymmetric digital subscriber line (T-DSL) services currently sold and more than 22 million channels using the information transfer standard ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network). T-Online is one of Europes's largest Internet service providers with over 11.8 million subscribers. T-Systems is Europe's second-largest provider of comprehensive IT and telecommunication solution and services to business customers in more than 20 countries. For more information about Deutsche Telekom, visit www.telekom.de/international.