Primacom
Encyclopedia
Primacom is a private cable network
operator in Germany
with around 1 million connected households and approximately 0.8 million customers. primacom provides services to clients primarily in Eastern Germany
(Berlin
, Brandenburg
, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
, Saxony
, Saxony-Anhalt
, Thuringia
) and in the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse
, Lower Saxony
, North Rhine-Westphalia
, Rhineland-Palatinate
and Saarland
. The company offers customers a wide range of communications products such as TV
(analog, digital, IP), Internet
, phone
, and applications for elderly care
at home and smart meter
ing/telemetry
. The company claims to be number 5 in Germany and market leader in its core business in central Germany
. The corporate headquarters is based in Leipzig
.
of the New Market and the NASDAQ
on 22 February 1999 . Since 5 June 2003 the stock of the PrimaCom AG is listed in the Prime Standard of Frankfurt Stock Exchange
.
In August 2000 primacom acquired the Multikabel company in the Netherlands
, which was sold to UPC five years later. In September 2007, the Orion Cable GmbH acquired nearly 91% of the shares of primacom group, with the aim to integrate the company with Tele Columbus Group
, a company Orion Cable had already acquired. Orion Cable´s attempts to integrate were stopped by primacom in 2009, due to low success estimations. The halt of the integration led to uncertainty at the banks of primacom, so that in December 2009 refinancing
negotiations begun.
As part of the refinancing negotiations, the operational business of the primacom Group was acquired by Medfort S.à rl in July 2010. Hence the company´s operational business and the former holding PrimaCom AG were separated. In January 2011 primacom completed the refinancing successfully and is now focused on the development of operating business.
The existing cable network is the main driver of the core business of the company. However, there were some changes over the years. While the core areas of the company were initially divided into two areas - Hessen / Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg on one side and areas in the east of Germany on the other, the existing networks in the western areas of Germany were sold to competitors during the following years. In 2008, the cable networks in Aachen
and Wiebaden were sold to Unity Media. In 2010, the city networks in Mainz
and Osnabrück
were sold to Kabel Deutschland
. Primacom began to relocate its headquarters to the eastern part of Germany, following the trend of cable network development. According to information provided by the company this process will be completed by 2011.
company Medfort S.à rl is holding 100 per cent of shares of the primacom group. In turn Perseus to SA is holding 100 per cent of Medfort S.à rl shares .
The operational business of the Group is led by the holding PrimaCom Management GmbH. Within the holding company
the operational assets as well as rights and licenses and also staff are performed in different operating units.
Two Managing Directors are appointed for all operational companies. These are:
• Michael Dorn, Chief Executive Officer (CEO, COO),
• Dipl.-Ing. Wolf Waschkuhn (CRO)
according to information of the company. The core of the network is the backbone
installed by primacom. That is a redundant and automatically-controlled network controlled centrally from Leipzig.
According to its own data, the turnover of the company is currently at about EUR 100 million with earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation
and amortization
of more than EUR 40 million.
Television (analog, digital and IP), internet and phone products are considered as conventional products among the available products from cable network operators.
• In the segment of television primacom offers analog signal, digital signal in SD and HD and 3D as well as IPTV
. According to Primacom officials, digital signal will be available to all households by the end of 2011. Currently, primacom is able to supply more than 90% of connected households with digital cable TV.
From 1 May 2012 (i.e. after the nation-wide shutdown[AO1] of the analog satellite TV signal, see also www.klardigital.de or www.digitale-initiative.de) primacom will continue to offer all kinds of television signals including analog transmission. This is possible without any problems due to the modern backbone structure. Nevertheless primacom stands for the digital future in television and claims to do everything possible to ensure that customers can enter the world of digital TV as quickly as possible. In the field of digital television
primacom feeds among others the Eutelsat
bouquet in the SD area. Beside the public and private television channels this provides access to new special-interest channels for family, film, sports, language, entertainment. Public and private high-definition channels of the RTL media group and ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG as well as the full SKY package are also available. primacom has been the first cable network operator in Germany, transmitting digital television already in 2000. This was also made possible because of the company's television signal that can be transmitted via IP in the backbone. This also means that primacom was one of the first IPTV provider in Germany and that the company is already prepared for a change to IPTV in the near future.
• Primacom offers Internet speeds of up to 120MBit / s in its upgraded cable networks. By the end of 2011, all households that are connected to the backbone will be upgraded via the DOCSIS3.0 technology by the company in order to be able to offer 120MBit / s to all of these households.
• Primacom offers a landline
network product which operates via IP signal. As a special feature primacom does not charge calls between primacom customers..
The innovative add-on products of the company are:
• several household products, such as emergency call for elderly people or room monitoring, and
• telemetry services. These services consist of electronic consumption data recording for the housing industry and transmission of data for monitoring of houses and apartments.
Cable network
A cable channel is a television channel available via cable television. Such channels are usually also available via satellite television, including direct broadcast satellite providers such as DirecTV, Dish Network and BSkyB...
operator in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
with around 1 million connected households and approximately 0.8 million customers. primacom provides services to clients primarily in Eastern Germany
Eastern Germany
Eastern Germany may refer to:* New federal states of Germany, the states that joined the Federal Republic of Germany after 1990Historically:* Former eastern territories of Germany, territories lost by Germany during and after the two world wars...
(Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a federal state in northern Germany. The capital city is Schwerin...
, Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...
, Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
) and in the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hesse
Hesse
Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...
, Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
, North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia is the most populous state of Germany, with four of the country's ten largest cities. The state was formed in 1946 as a merger of the northern Rhineland and Westphalia, both formerly part of Prussia. Its capital is Düsseldorf. The state is currently run by a coalition of the...
, Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....
and Saarland
Saarland
Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...
. The company offers customers a wide range of communications products such as TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
(analog, digital, IP), Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, phone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
, and applications for elderly care
Elderly care
Elderly care or simply eldercare is the fulfillment of the special needs and requirements that are unique to senior citizens. This broad term encompasses such services as assisted living, adult day care, long term care, nursing homes, hospice care, and In-Home care.-Cultural and geographic...
at home and smart meter
Smart meter
A smart meter is usually an electrical meter that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing purposes. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the...
ing/telemetry
Telemetry
Telemetry is a technology that allows measurements to be made at a distance, usually via radio wave transmission and reception of the information. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure...
. The company claims to be number 5 in Germany and market leader in its core business in central Germany
Central Germany (geography)
In geography, central Germany describes the areas surrounding the central point of modern-day Germany.The town of Niederdorla, in the state of Thuringia, claims to be the most central town in Germany...
. The corporate headquarters is based in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
.
Company History
primacom was formed in 1998 from the merger of Kabelmedia and Süweda. After the merger, the Group was introduced to the stock exchangeStock exchange
A stock exchange is an entity that provides services for stock brokers and traders to trade stocks, bonds, and other securities. Stock exchanges also provide facilities for issue and redemption of securities and other financial instruments, and capital events including the payment of income and...
of the New Market and the NASDAQ
NASDAQ
The NASDAQ Stock Market, also known as the NASDAQ, is an American stock exchange. "NASDAQ" originally stood for "National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations". It is the second-largest stock exchange by market capitalization in the world, after the New York Stock Exchange. As of...
on 22 February 1999 . Since 5 June 2003 the stock of the PrimaCom AG is listed in the Prime Standard of Frankfurt Stock Exchange
Frankfurt Stock Exchange
The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the world's 12th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. Located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse, which also owns the European futures exchange Eurex and the clearing company...
.
In August 2000 primacom acquired the Multikabel company in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, which was sold to UPC five years later. In September 2007, the Orion Cable GmbH acquired nearly 91% of the shares of primacom group, with the aim to integrate the company with Tele Columbus Group
Tele Columbus
Tele Columbus is the third largest cable provider in Germany and with 3.7 million connected households the biggest cable operator on network level 4. The company was formed in November 2006 following the merger of Tele Columbus GmbH and ewt multimedia GmbH under the umbrella of Orion Cable...
, a company Orion Cable had already acquired. Orion Cable´s attempts to integrate were stopped by primacom in 2009, due to low success estimations. The halt of the integration led to uncertainty at the banks of primacom, so that in December 2009 refinancing
Refinancing
Refinancing may refer to the replacement of an existing debt obligation with a debt obligation under different terms. The terms and conditions of refinancing may vary widely by country, province, or state, based on several economic factors such as, inherent risk, projected risk, political...
negotiations begun.
As part of the refinancing negotiations, the operational business of the primacom Group was acquired by Medfort S.à rl in July 2010. Hence the company´s operational business and the former holding PrimaCom AG were separated. In January 2011 primacom completed the refinancing successfully and is now focused on the development of operating business.
The existing cable network is the main driver of the core business of the company. However, there were some changes over the years. While the core areas of the company were initially divided into two areas - Hessen / Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg on one side and areas in the east of Germany on the other, the existing networks in the western areas of Germany were sold to competitors during the following years. In 2008, the cable networks in Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
and Wiebaden were sold to Unity Media. In 2010, the city networks in Mainz
Mainz
Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...
and Osnabrück
Osnabrück
Osnabrück is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest...
were sold to Kabel Deutschland
Kabel Deutschland
-Company:Kabel Deutschland operates in 13 of the 16 states . In 2006, of the 15.4 million households passed by their cable the company served 9.6 million, however only one third of these are direct customers of Kabel Deutschland, since especially in large apartment complexes the in-house cable...
. Primacom began to relocate its headquarters to the eastern part of Germany, following the trend of cable network development. According to information provided by the company this process will be completed by 2011.
Corporate Identity / Logo
primacom revised its brand appearance in September 2010 in order to gain a distinctive appearance back again (Background: during the integration efforts in 2008 the brand appearance of primacom was closely linked to TeleColumbus). According to their own sources the company is using the new color and language design to obey the vision of the company ("We are the leading communications service provider in eastern Germany) and its guidelines (www.primacom.de/unternehmen/vision) while staying close to the brand appearance that is well-known to the customers.Organisation
The LuxembourgLuxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
company Medfort S.à rl is holding 100 per cent of shares of the primacom group. In turn Perseus to SA is holding 100 per cent of Medfort S.à rl shares .
The operational business of the Group is led by the holding PrimaCom Management GmbH. Within the holding company
Holding company
A holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
the operational assets as well as rights and licenses and also staff are performed in different operating units.
Two Managing Directors are appointed for all operational companies. These are:
• Michael Dorn, Chief Executive Officer (CEO, COO),
• Dipl.-Ing. Wolf Waschkuhn (CRO)
Key Data
primacom has about one million connected households, most of them are upgraded to the highest standard of technologyTechnology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
according to information of the company. The core of the network is the backbone
Backbone network
A backbone network or network backbone is a part of computer network infrastructure that interconnects various pieces of network, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks. A backbone can tie together diverse networks in the same building, in different...
installed by primacom. That is a redundant and automatically-controlled network controlled centrally from Leipzig.
According to its own data, the turnover of the company is currently at about EUR 100 million with earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation
Depreciation
Depreciation refers to two very different but related concepts:# the decrease in value of assets , and# the allocation of the cost of assets to periods in which the assets are used ....
and amortization
Amortization
Amortization is the process of decreasing, or accounting for, an amount over a period. The word comes from Middle English amortisen to kill, alienate in mortmain, from Anglo-French amorteser, alteration of amortir, from Vulgar Latin admortire to kill, from Latin ad- + mort-, mors death.When used...
of more than EUR 40 million.
A range of services
Besides general products of cable network operators the company currently offers a number of additional innovative products.Television (analog, digital and IP), internet and phone products are considered as conventional products among the available products from cable network operators.
• In the segment of television primacom offers analog signal, digital signal in SD and HD and 3D as well as IPTV
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...
. According to Primacom officials, digital signal will be available to all households by the end of 2011. Currently, primacom is able to supply more than 90% of connected households with digital cable TV.
From 1 May 2012 (i.e. after the nation-wide shutdown[AO1] of the analog satellite TV signal, see also www.klardigital.de or www.digitale-initiative.de) primacom will continue to offer all kinds of television signals including analog transmission. This is possible without any problems due to the modern backbone structure. Nevertheless primacom stands for the digital future in television and claims to do everything possible to ensure that customers can enter the world of digital TV as quickly as possible. In the field of digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
primacom feeds among others the Eutelsat
Eutelsat
Eutelsat S.A. is a French-based satellite provider. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and significant parts of Asia and the Americas, it is one of the world's three leading satellite operators in terms of revenues.Eutelsat’s satellites...
bouquet in the SD area. Beside the public and private television channels this provides access to new special-interest channels for family, film, sports, language, entertainment. Public and private high-definition channels of the RTL media group and ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG as well as the full SKY package are also available. primacom has been the first cable network operator in Germany, transmitting digital television already in 2000. This was also made possible because of the company's television signal that can be transmitted via IP in the backbone. This also means that primacom was one of the first IPTV provider in Germany and that the company is already prepared for a change to IPTV in the near future.
• Primacom offers Internet speeds of up to 120MBit / s in its upgraded cable networks. By the end of 2011, all households that are connected to the backbone will be upgraded via the DOCSIS3.0 technology by the company in order to be able to offer 120MBit / s to all of these households.
• Primacom offers a landline
Landline
A landline was originally an overland telegraph wire, as opposed to an undersea cable. Currently, landline refers to a telephone line which travels through a solid medium, either metal wire or optical fibre, as distinguished from a mobile cellular line, where transmission is via radio waves...
network product which operates via IP signal. As a special feature primacom does not charge calls between primacom customers..
The innovative add-on products of the company are:
• several household products, such as emergency call for elderly people or room monitoring, and
• telemetry services. These services consist of electronic consumption data recording for the housing industry and transmission of data for monitoring of houses and apartments.
Current range of products
The current range of primacom products is based on the above mentioned products. It is available at www.primacom.de/angebote .Availability
The availability of primacom products is constantly changing due to the network expansion in several areas. Already existing networks are only negatively affected by changes if the company is shutting them down. Otherwise, the performance level is constant at the current level in any case. Availability can be checked on the Internet at www.primacom.de/service.External links
- The company group's official website
- An article in Handelsblatt on the financial restructuring process and 2010 results (German)