Deutsche Telekom’s Battle Plan: Buybacks, Labor Peace, and a US Mega-Merger Aim to Resuscitate a Stalled Stock
12.06.2026 - 11:53:13 | boerse-global.de
Deutsche Telekom is pulling every lever in its reach — a record share buyback, a hard-fought wage deal, and ambitious plans for a full takeover of T-Mobile US — yet the stock remains stuck in a rut. The shares have shed roughly 10% over the past twelve months, trading at €27.92 after briefly touching €28.06, well below the February high of €34.35. Investors, it seems, are waiting for clarity before rewarding the group's operational strength.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Share price (recent) | €27.92 |
| 12-month performance | –10% |
| 200-day moving average | €29.00 |
| KGV | 13.5 |
| 2025E dividend | €1.00 |
The disconnect between robust underlying numbers and a languishing share price is stark. First-quarter revenue climbed to nearly €30 billion, with adjusted net profit rising 6.5%. Free cash flow for the full year is expected to top €19 billion. But the market’s attention is trained on two overhangs: the regulatory labyrinth of a T-Mobile US full merger and the final stamp on a domestic labor pact.
Buyback Machine Accelerates
Management has been deploying capital aggressively. The ongoing buyback programme, with a target volume of up to €2 billion by 2026, picked up pace in early June. In the first week alone, Deutsche Telekom scooped up 1.58 million of its own shares, followed by an additional €27 million in purchases during subsequent days. Most acquired shares are being cancelled, boosting earnings per share for remaining holders.
The buybacks are intended to counteract the drag from merger uncertainty. According to the Wall Street Journal, CEO Timotheus Höttges is pressing ahead with plans for a full acquisition of T-Mobile US, which already supplies nearly two-thirds of group revenue. The goal is to eliminate the conglomerate discount that weighs on the parent company’s valuation and create the world’s largest telecoms group.
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Analysts remain sceptical. Ulrich Rathe of Bernstein Research points to “considerable regulatory hurdles”, including the need to win over US minority shareholders and secure approval from the German government, which still holds around 28% of Deutsche Telekom. The deal’s complexity leaves little room for a quick fix.
Labor Peace Secured – At a Price
On the home front, the group has just cleared a major operational hurdle. After tough negotiations with the ver.di union, a new collective wage agreement covering roughly 60,000 employees is set to be finalised on 19 June, when the union’s wage commission delivers its verdict.
The compromise carries real cost. Monthly fixed salaries will rise by a total of €290 in two steps, followed by a across-the-board tabular increase of 2.4%. In exchange, Deutsche Telekom gains labour peace until at least the end of 2028, with no compulsory redundancies during that period. The deal locks in critical IT and engineering talent at a time when the company is pushing deeper into artificial intelligence.
The AI push is already visible. In Munich, the group has launched a new data centre equipped with 10,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs. Early tenants include Siemens, SAP, and the startup Perplexity. Meanwhile, domestic fibre adoption is accelerating: more than 30% of German households now use a Telekom fibre connection, and the churn rate remains low at 4.3%.
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The Valuation Riddle
Despite these levers, the stock continues to trade below its 200-day moving average of €29.00. The earnings multiple of 13.5-times is not demanding, but the market is pricing in execution risk on both the merger and the buyback’s ability to narrow the discount.
The question now is which catalyst will break the stalemate. A swift green light from regulators or a surge in buyback activity could change sentiment. But for the moment, Höttges and his team are running a two-track strategy: buybacks to support the share price in the short term, and a blockbuster US merger to address the structural value gap. Neither has yet delivered the spark.
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