The €8 Billion Bet. When Swisscom Went All-In on Italy's Most Brutal Market Through the Acquisition of Vodafone Italia

In December 2024, Swisscom (CEO Christoph Aeschlimann) completed its €8 billion acquisition of Vodafone Italia from Vodafone Group (CEO Margherita Della Valle), merging it with its subsidiary Fastweb. The deal created Italy's largest mobile operator and its first truly converged fixed-mobile challenger at national scale.The logic is compelling: combine Fastweb's fiber network with Vodafone's most awarded mobile network, offer Italian businesses and consumers something no competitor can, and escape the price war that has been destroying margins for a decade.But there is a catch.In 2016, the Wind-Tre merger followed the same M&A playbook in the same market, with similarly promising synergies. It failed. French group Iliad entered, prices collapsed further, and billions in value evaporated.In this episode of Glenshore Perspectives, we look at whether Fastweb + Vodafone can avoid that fate. This is more than a story about telecommunications, it is about whether asset complementarity on a spreadsheet can survive contact with cultural integration, competitive retaliation, and a market that punishes sub-scale operators.This podcast episode is inspired by the article written by Amine Laouedj, Managing Director at Glenshore, available at https://www.glenshore.com/articles/the-8-billion-bet-when-swisscom-went-all-in-on-italys-most-brutal-market-through-the-acquisition-of-vodafone-italia