BT Italia
Encyclopedia
BT
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...

 in Italy is represented by BT Italia, which is the second largest business telecommunication operator in the Italian market, controlling an 11% share.

History

BT Italia is the result of a series of industrial ventures and mergers that started with the founding of Albacom in 1995, then a joint venture of BT
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...

, BNL
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA is an Italian banking firm. Founded in 1913 as Istituto di Credito per la Cooperazione, it was nationalized in 1929. It was re-privatized and listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in 1998, before being acquired by French banking group BNP Paribas in 2006...

, ENI
Eni
Eni S.p.A. is an Italian multinational oil and gas company, present in 70 countries, and currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of 87.7 billion euros , as of July 24, 2008...

 and Mediaset
Mediaset
Mediaset S.p.A., known as Gruppo Mediaset in Italian, is an Italian-based media company which is the largest commercial broadcaster in the country...

, each company controlling a 25% share. BT acted as the industrial partner, whereas the three other companies outsourced most or all of their telecommunication needs to Albacom, BNL significantly contributing its packet-switched network that served as the basis of Albacom's trunk.

The captive business kick-started Albacom's presence in the Italian TLC market, and enabled the company to aggressively start selling its services in the market at large.

In a separate deal, BT acquired in 2001 a controlling stake in the then-booming I.NET, founded in 1994 as an ISP and fast growing in the datacenter and IT services business with a strong emphasis on IT security. I.NET had been floated in 2000 on Milan Stock Exchange (now part of London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange Group plc
The London Stock Exchange Group plc is the leading diversified stock exchange group in Europe. It owns the Borsa Italiana and London Stock Exchanges. It is a member of the FTSE 250 Index as of 21 June 2010.-History:...

), and kept operating independently, and BT's influence on its policy was through the board of directors where however it did not hold any executive post.

In 2002-2005 Albacom suffered from slowing growth and its financials turned into red; in the same time frame the non-TLC partners negotiated with BT an exit from the venture which was finalized in 2005 with BT acquiring 100% of the capital and Albacom (that closely afterwards was renamed as BT Albacom) keeping long-term contracts with all three former shareholders.

In 2006, BT won a multi-year worldwide outsourcing contract with FIAT
Fiat
FIAT, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino , is an Italian automobile manufacturer, engine manufacturer, financial, and industrial group based in Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont. Fiat was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli...

, that included the purchase of Atlanet, FIAT's TLC venture. Atlanet was then merged with Albacom to become BT Italia.

In 2007, BT made a public offer to purchase 100% of I.NET's capital, acknowledging a plan to merge the company into BT Italia and delisting the resulting company. Although some investors, that did not agree on delisting and had some doubts on the industrial plan, brought on litigation, the merger was completed on January 11, 2008 and I.NET was delisted the same day.
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