Vodafone-Mannesmann
The $183 billion hostile takeover that reshaped European telecoms — and proved that no company is too big to be acquired against its will.
In nineteen ninety nine, Vodafone's CEO Chris Gent announced he wanted to acquire Mannesmann, a German industrial conglomerate with a mobile network attached. The asking price was a hundred eighty three billion dollars. No telecom deal had ever approached this scale. Investors thought he'd lost his mind. Mannesmann's board rejected the offer. So Vodafone launched a hostile takeover. They went directly to Mannesmann's shareholders with a higher bid. It was audacious. In Europe, hostile takeovers weren't done. Companies were protected. But Gent had calculated that mobile's future was worth betting the company on. He had to own that spectrum and network.
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