Deutsche Telekom Keeps Its Merger Powder Dry While Wiring Europe's Digital Currency
Published on 10/31/2026 at 10:50 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Deutsche Telekom has quietly stepped back from tabling a formal offer for the shares in T-Mobile US it does not already own, according to a Reuters report published Thursday. The news agency cited opposition from the group's works council as one factor behind the decision, and both companies declined to comment. Bloomberg had reported the same pause a day earlier.
The retreat is temporary rather than final. Reuters noted that Deutsche Telekom could make another attempt at a later date, and the works council's resistance was described as one reason among several — not the sole cause. Investors should read the reports as a shelving of the transaction for now, not as a verdict on whether a full takeover will eventually happen. The accounts remain press reports, not a confirmed board decision.
Relief and Subscriber Growth Both Feed the Rally
Thursday's positive share-price reaction was attributed in market coverage partly to relief that the deal has been pushed back. Stronger-than-expected net customer additions at T-Mobile US lent support as well, which means the advance cannot be pinned on the transaction reports alone.
The US subsidiary's quarterly figures give the business case a footing independent of any merger. T-Mobile US booked service revenues of USD 19.4bn and net income of USD 3.5bn, alongside 274,000 additional postpaid customer accounts. Those numbers describe operating momentum at the unit; the media reports concern whether Deutsche Telekom wants to deepen the combination. One should not be read as a substitute for the other.
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Sell-side sentiment was mixed well before this week's headlines. Barclays cut its price target to EUR 32 from EUR 35 on October 20 while keeping its "Overweight" rating — a lower target, in other words, without a downgrade.
A Place in the Digital Euro's Plumbing
On a separate track, the European Central Bank confirmed yesterday that it had selected a consortium of Nexi Payments and Deutsche Telekom Business Solutions to supply connectivity services for the digital euro. The contract took effect on September 28. What the group is providing is technical networking, not the issuance of the currency itself, and the mandate covers the pilot phase rather than full-scale live operation — a boundary that limits how much can be read into the award.
Reuters also reported yesterday that the ECB had picked Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica as technology partners to build network infrastructure. The specific consortium decision covers Nexi Payments and Deutsche Telekom Business Solutions.
Fibre, Labs and the Next Confirmed Date
Alongside the ECB work, the company is pressing ahead with its own network. On Tuesday it reported building 255,000 additional fibre connections in September, bringing the total able to take such tariffs to 14.4 million households and businesses. That build-out concerns connection availability, a different matter from the central bank's connectivity contract, though both put technical infrastructure in the spotlight.
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Mobile research is advancing too. On October 21 Deutsche Telekom reported initial lab measurements with Nokia and NVIDIA in which AI-based channel estimation delivered 10% to 15% more uplink throughput, according to the company. The results come from the laboratory and do not demonstrate a gain already achieved across live networks — just as the ECB contract denotes a pilot mandate. Both are concrete technical steps, each within its confirmed scope.
The next confirmed date on the corporate calendar is the release of Deutsche Telekom's Q3 2026 results on November 5, 2026. Until then, the central message of the transaction coverage stays narrow: no formal offer is on the table for now, and the door to a later attempt remains open.
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