KPN

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For other uses, see KPN (disambiguation).
Koninklijke KPN N.V.
TypeNaamloze Vennootschap
Euronext: KPN
AEX component
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1893 (original; as PTT)
1 January 1989 (privatised)
HeadquartersRotterdam, Netherlands
Key people
Joost Farwerck (CEO),
Duco Sickinghe (chairman of the supervisory board)
ProductsLandline
Mobile Telephony
Internet
Digital Terrestrial Television
IT services
IPTV
Brands
Revenue€6.498 billion (2017)[1]
€882 million (2017)[1]
€483 million (2017)[1]
Total assets€13.530 billion (2017)[1]
Total equity€3.358 billion (2017)[1]
Owner
  • América Móvil (16.08%)
  • Franklin Mutual Series Funds (4.99%)
  • BlackRock (3.83%)
  • Norges Bank (2.91%)
Number of employees
13,021 (FTE, Dec. 2017)[1]
Subsidiaries
  • Cam IT Solutions
  • Solcon
  • StartReady
  • NLDC
  • RoutIT
  • Yes Telecom

KPN (in full Koninklijke KPN N.V., also Royal KPN N.V.) is a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company. KPN originated from a government-run postal, telegraph and telephone service and is based in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

History[]

Until 1998[]

What is now KPN was first officially established as a postal service called the Statenpost in 1752. In 1799, Dutch postal services were reformed into a single, national system, and in 1807, was placed under the administration of the Ministry of Finance. In 1893, postal system and telegraph and telephone services were brought together to form the Staatsbedrijf der Posterijen, Telegrafie en Telefonie (approximately, “National corporation for Postage, Telegraphy and Telephony”), shortened to PTT, under the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce.[2][3]

Around a hundred years later, post codes were introduced in the Netherlands in 1977, which allowed full automation of the postal system. On 1 January 1989, the PTT was privatised and reorganized as a private business known as Koninklijke PTT Nederland (“Royal PTT Netherlands”), shortened to KPN or PTT Nederland.[3] KPN remained wholly owned but no longer managed by the Dutch government. Its postal service was called PTT Post while its telecom service was called PTT Telecom, both independent from each other.[2]

In 1992, KPN cofounded GD Express Worldwide (GDEW) with TNT and the state owned postal companies of Canada, France, West Germany and Sweden.[2] KPN later bought out the shares held by the state owned postal companies, owning a total of 50% shareholding of GDEW.

KPN took over its GDEW partner TNT between October 1996 and January 1997.[4] KPN also controlled the national Dutch postal services until its postal division was spun-off and merged with TNT to form TNT Post Group (TPG) in 1998.

The Dutch government progressively privatized KPN beginning in 1994, with KPN listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, then reduced its stake to 6.4% in 2005, and finally completed the process in 2006, giving up its golden share veto rights.

Since 1998[]

In 2001 KPN tried to merge with the Belgian telco Belgacom.[5] It did not succeed because of the objections of the Belgian government.[citation needed] [6] In 2001, Spanish Telefonica expressed an interest in buying KPN.[citation needed][7]

The Japanese mobile telephone company NTT DoCoMo holds a 2% stake in KPN Mobile NV. From 2002 until 2007 KPN Mobile provided i-mode services on its mobile phone networks. i-mode as introduced by KPN's E-Plus in Germany in March 2002 and by KPN Mobile The Netherlands in April 2002 was the first mobile Internet service in Europe (ahead of Vodafone's V-live).

KPN partly owned KPNQwest, a telecommunications company equally owned by KPN and the American Qwest Communications International. The company was set to bring together the state-of-the-art fibre-optic networks of the two partners and the Internet services expertise and customer base of EUnet International. The company collapsed in a bankruptcy in 2002.

KPN also has operational synergies through joint ventures with TDC and Swisscom.[8]

In 2007 KPN acquired Getronics N.V., a worldwide ICT services company with more than 22,000 employees, and almost doubled its former size. KPN is still divesting parts of Getronics that didn't meet their core interests. Recently they sold a Dutch department of Getronics named Business Application Services (BAS) to CapGemini for about €250,000,000.[citation needed]

In August 2013, América Móvil offered to take over the remaining 70% stake of the Dutch telecommunications company for 7.2 billion Euros ($9.49 billion). América Móvil currently owns close to 30% of KPN. The Dutch Government has issued a warning on this proposed takeover of KPN by Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim, as part of his ambition to expand his telecom empire.[9] The plans eventually ended when the "Stichting Preferente Aandelen B KPN" exercised a call option to gain ~50% of the total shares, in order to put up a temporary protection wall against the hostile takeover.

In November 2020, EQT AB offered to take over KPN for 11 billion Euros. Further in April 2021 EQT AB and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners jointly started work on a KPN takeover bid for 12.5 billion Euros.[10]

Shareholders[]

As of 2021, main share holders are:[11]

Stichting Preferente Aandelen B KPN is a foundation which "was established to promote the interests of KPN, KPN its related companies and all stakeholders, including influences the continuity, independence or identity of KPN in conflict with the interests and threaten to keep much as possible." The foundation exercised a call option to gain roughly 50% of the KPN shares in order to protect KPN against a hostile takeover. This stock was withdrawn on a special shareholder meeting held on 10 January 2014, as per the request of the foundation in November 2013.[12]

Activity[]

Former KPN Head Office in The Hague

In the Netherlands, KPN has 6.3 million fixed-line telephone customers. Its mobile division, KPN Mobile, had more than 33 million subscribers in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, and Spain under different brand names. Through its ownership of several European Internet service providers, KPN also provides Internet access to 2.1 million customers, and it offers business network services and data transport throughout Western Europe.

KPN operates a mobile services network for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, and is also working on 5G. It also offers LTE-Advanced in limited locations on the 1800 MHz band, whereas the majority of KPN's 4G network operates in the 8/900 MHz bands, which will allow theoretic download speeds up to 200Mbit/sec. The 3G network is to be shut down in January 2022.[13]

In September 2019, KPN announced that Dominique Leroy will succeed Maximo Ibarra as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management, with effect from December 1, 2019.[14]

Several weeks later in the same month, KPN announced withdrawal of appointment of Dominique Leroy as CEO.[15]

On October 1, 2019, Joost Farwerck was appointed as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management.[16]

Operations[]

Most of KPN's operations are in the Dutch telecommunication market.

In the 2000s and early 2010s, KPN had multiple subsidiaries in European countries such as Belgium, Germany and France. Most of these international operations were sold off in the 2010s.

Netherlands[]

In the Dutch telephone market, KPN is the owner of the fixed telephone operations (FLO) network and is the market leader in mobile network operator (MNO) under its own brand name and as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) under the brand names Simyo and Ortel Mobile. Defunct mobile subsidiaries include Hi and Telfort.

In the Internet market, KPN provides Internet service under the KPN and XS4ALL brand names. Defunct subsidiary providers include Telfort, Planet Internet, Het Net, Freeler, Speedlinq, HCCNet, Demon Netherlands.

In 2004, KPN also started offering digital terrestrial television in the Netherlands as part of its multi-play services via its subsidiary Digitenne. Since 1 May 2006, KPN offers Interactive Television, an IPTV service based on their DSL service, with the ability to receive Video On Demand and replay your missed TV episodes besides regular TV programming.

KPN Retail is a Dutch subsidiary that owns retail stores branded KPN Winkel.

Belgium[]

In Belgium, KPN formerly owned mobile provider Base. In 2015, it was sold to Telenet, a Belgian cable broadband service provider.

In 2007 KPN purchased the Belgian fixed telephone and broadband operations of the Tele2-Versatel joint venture. These were sold again in December 2009 to Mobistar (now Orange Belgium).

In 2009, KPN bought a 33.3% share in MVNO Mobile Vikings,[17] which was sold to Medialaan in 2015.

Germany[]

In Germany, KPN formerly owned mobile provider E-Plus, which was Germany's third largest mobile phone network. E-Plus was sold to Telefónica Germany in 2014.

France[]

In France, KPN was active as a mobile virtual network operator under the brand name Simyo, which was sold to Bouygues Télécom in 2011.

International[]

From 2009 until 2019, KPN owned the US-based iBasis. The company was sold to Tofane Global in 2019.[18]

In 2006, KPN acquired Belgian ICT services company Newtel Essence (call center solutions and customer relations management).[19]

See also[]

  • Industry5.svg Companies portal

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Integrated Annual Report 2017" (PDF). KPN. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c "TPG N.V. History". Funding Universe. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Onze Geschiedenis". KPN (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 27 September 2019.
  4. ^ "KPN's Takeover Offer For TNT Is Welcomed". www.wsj.com. 3 October 1996. Archived from the original on 14 June 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  5. ^ Jeroen Wester; Michiel van Nieuwstadt (1 September 2001). "KPN na Belgacom in dode steeg" (in Dutch). NRC Handelsblad.
  6. ^ Dan Bilefsky, and Almar Latour (29 August 2001). "KPN, Belgacom Merger Talks Stall As Belgacom Looks to Sweeten Deal". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  7. ^ Green, Jennifer (2 May 2000). "Telefonica reportedly in merger talks with KPN". Screen Daily. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  8. ^ "KPN Ventures to acquire stake in Internet of Things platform provider Actility". . 16 June 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  9. ^ Dolia Estevez (13 September 2013). "Dutch Government Issues Warning On Takeover Of Telecom Firm KPN By Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim". Forbes.
  10. ^ "Private equity firms are preparing to bid for telecoms giant KPN: WSJ". . 9 April 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  11. ^ "KPN KON Company Profile". Euronext. 21 April 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  12. ^ "Stichting Preferente Aandelen B KPN". prefs-kpn.nl.
  13. ^ "Van 3G naar 4G: sneller, veiliger en stabieler" [From 3G to 4G: faster, more secure and more stable] (in Dutch). KPN. 13 November 2018.
  14. ^ "KPN to appoint Dominique Leroy as Chief Executive Officer". KPN Corporate EN. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  15. ^ "KPN to withdraw the intended appointment of Mrs. Dominique Leroy as CEO of KPN". Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  16. ^ "KPN announces new CEO, CFO transition and expands Board of Management". Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  17. ^ "KPN and Concentra invest in Mobile Vikings". MobileWeb Blog - Mobile Internet & Apps - Business SMS. Archived from the original on 2012-07-01.
  18. ^ "KPN to sell iBasis to Tofane Global". KPN. 7 March 2018.
  19. ^ "KPN neemt NewTel Essence over" [KPN acquires NewTel Essence] (in Dutch). Het Nieuwsblad. 4 July 2006.

External links[]

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