6.3 billion - that's what Sunrise wants to pay for UPC. Rarely has a deal been fought for as hard as the purchase of UPC. It all started out quite harmoniously. In mid-April, Chairman of the Board Peter Kurer said in an NZZ interview what would be done if the deal didn't go through: "Then we'll say: 'Understood. The shareholders see it differently than we do.' And carry on as the owners want. We are only the shareholders' trustees. Not people who just do what they want."
There has been no sign of this calm attitude for weeks. All guns are firing and the main shareholder Freenet, which has a 24.5 percent stake in Sunrise, is being insulted and attacked. Freenet is middle east rcs data a telco company with more than 4,000 employees and a turnover of more than three billion euros. And one can assume that Freenet boss Christoph Vilanek knows more about the industry than the all-round board member Peter Kurer. People are talking about technology: many believe that the old UPC mole network will be replaced by wireless technologies such as G5.
People talk about money: many think the price is far too high, after all, the Swiss air force is being renewed with six billion. Nobody ever talks about the influence on the media landscape. Today, when TV is no longer received via antenna, the networks have media power. The Swiss youth channel Joiz had to struggle because years ago UPC – when analogue broadcasting was still essential – banned the Swiss channel from the digital network. And to this day, the well-made music channel «Musig24» is broadcast on Swisscom TV, but UPC is not interested in this local program, but is very interested in endless teleshopping. The more money the telcos have, the bigger they are, the more they buy sports rights that the public broadcasters, which are not free, do not. Swiss football is played on Swisscom, ice hockey on UPC.