China in auto power play
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Vodafone Germany says interested in freenet DSL
DUESSELDORF (Reuters) - British telecoms group Vodafone (VOD.L) is interested in buying the DSL broadband business of telecoms company freenet FNTG.DE, the head of Vodafone's German business said on Tuesday.
"We are looking at it," Friedrich Joussen said.
Vodafone was among companies approached by freenet for preliminary talks, he said, adding that he expected talks to progress in the coming six months.
Freenet was formed from the merger of mobile phone company mobilcom and its Internet arm in March 2007 but last year said it wanted to focus on its mobile business and therefore put its DSL unit up for sale.
Vodafone closely competes with Deutsche Telekom's (DTEGn.DE) T-Mobile -- the number one operator -- in the fiercely competitive German market and Joussen has set himself the task of raising Vodafone's DSL market share.
Two months ago, Vodafone took control of its German fixed line carrier Arcor, buying the 26.4 percent that it did not already own for 474 million euros ($753.1 million) in cash from Deutsche Bahn AG DBN.UL and Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE).
Vodafone, which cut its revenue outlook on Tuesday as tougher economic conditions forced consumers to hold back from buying and using new handsets, said Germany remained its most significant broadband market, with 2.8 million customers in Arcor and Vodafone Germany.
(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Nicola Leske; Editing by Paul Bolding)
