Poste Italiane Launches €10.8 Billion Takeover Bid for Telecom Italia to Create Digital Giant

Poste Italiane, Italy's majority state-owned postal service, launched a €10.8 billion ($12.5 billion) cash-and-stock takeover bid for former phone monopoly Telecom Italia on Sunday, March 22, 2026, aiming to take the telecoms company private and create a national digital infrastructure champion. The offer, announced by Poste's board of directors, values each Telecom Italia share at €0.635 — a 9.01% premium to Friday's closing price — comprising €0.167 in cash plus 0.0218 newly issued Poste shares per Telecom Italia share tendered, according to Reuters. The combined group would generate pro forma revenue of approximately €27 billion and an operating profit of around €5 billion, with more than employees. Poste said the Italian state, including through its stake held via Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, would hold a majority stake of over 50% in the resulting entity. Completion of the transaction is targeted for the end of 2026.

TIM board meets Monday to weigh the offer Telecom Italia's board of directors was scheduled to meet on Monday, March 23, to begin evaluating the proposal. A Telecom Italia spokesperson said the company was "taking note" of the offer and that the board would convene to start the evaluation process, according to Rai News. The Financial Times reported that Telecom Italia chief executive Pietro Labriola was briefed on the offer by Poste chief executive Matteo Del Fante prior to its public announcement, and that Labriola supported the bid because it would create a "national champion." The offer was described by il Giornale as not formally agreed with Telecom Italia, but also not hostile. Poste said the objective was to acquire the entire share capital of Telecom Italia and proceed with the delisting of its shares from Euronext Milan. „If they want to succeed we would expect they will need to increase the offer” — James Ratzer via Financial Times Ratzer, an analyst at New Street Research, described the bid as an "opportunistic attempt at renationalisation by the Italian government with a low-cost premium given the potential synergies."

Synergies of €700 million a year projected from merger Poste highlighted significant expected synergies from the combination, projecting annual benefits of 700 (million euros per year) — projected annual synergies from the merger, of which €500 million would come from cost reductions and more than €200 million from increased revenues, according to Rai News. One-off costs to achieve these synergies were estimated at €0.7 billion, spread over multiple fiscal years. The merged entity would combine Poste's network of 13,000 post offices with Telecom Italia's more than 4,000 points of sale and a network of 49,000 third-party partners, reaching 19 million active digital customers. Poste said the new group would represent "the largest connected infrastructure platform in the country" and a "strategic pillar of the national economy." The impact on Poste's 2026 dividend would be neutral, with a positive effect on profit expected from 2027 onward. Poste also said it would maintain a free float of more than €15 billion after the transaction, with a shareholder base diversified between institutional and retail investors.

Revenue: 27, Operating profit: 5, Free float post-transaction: 15, One-off synergy costs: 0.7

Poste built its TIM stake through Vivendi share purchases Poste Italiane is already Telecom Italia's largest shareholder, holding a 27.3% stake according to the Financial Times, or nearly 25% according to il Giornale. The Financial Times reported that Poste first acquired a 9% holding in Telecom Italia in 2025 from Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, then increased its stake through two stock purchases from French conglomerate Vivendi, which had previously been Telecom Italia's largest shareholder. Vivendi is no longer a shareholder in Telecom Italia. The bid follows Telecom Italia's 2024 sale of its fixed-line network infrastructure to private equity firm KKR in a €22 billion deal, which allowed the company to reduce its substantial debt. The Financial Times noted that Telecom Italia is the third-largest mobile operator in Italy by number of customers, behind Vodafone and WindTre, and also holds the third position in Brazil. Telecoms networks have become increasingly strategic for European governments, and Italy's administration has sought to maintain a close grip on the country's digital infrastructure, the Financial Times reported.

Telecom Italia traces its origins to Italy's former state telephone monopoly and has undergone decades of privatization, ownership changes, and financial restructuring. The company sold its fixed-line network to KKR in a €22 billion deal in 2024, enabling it to reduce a significant debt burden that had weighed on the company for years. Poste Italiane, originally Italy's national postal service, has in recent years expanded into logistics, cloud services, and banking to diversify its revenue streams. Telecom Italia had previously held discussions about a potential tie-up with French telecoms group Iliad, but those talks ended before the Poste bid emerged.