Mobilcom
| Mobilcom AG
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1991 |
| resolution | March 2, 2007 |
| Seat | Büdelsdorf , Germany |
| management |
|
| Number of employees | 3,578 (2005) |
| sales | 2.05 billion euros (2005) |
| Branch | telecommunications |
| Website | www.mobilcom.de |
The Mobilcom AG (own case mobilcom ) was a publicly traded German company in the telecommunications sector with headquarters in Büdelsdorf , which in 1991 by Gerhard Schmid was founded and primarily as mobile phone providers and between 1998 and 2003 as a network operator (provider of call-by-call and preselection ) was active.
Mobilcom AG merged with Freenet.de AG on March 2, 2007 and now operates under the name freenet AG .
The mobilcom-debitel GmbH (formerly Mobilcom Communications GmbH) is a company in freenet Corporation. It mainly sells mobile phone connections under the mobilcom-debitel brand.
history
The company was founded in 1991 by Gerhard Schmid as Teleforce GmbH and renamed MobilCom Communikationstechnik GmbH in 1992. In the early days, Mobilcom, which had only one employee besides Schmid, marketed cell phones on a commission basis. In 1993 the company achieved sales of 100 million marks . In the 1995 financial year Mobilcom made a profit for the first time. 1997, meanwhile 300 employees were employed by Mobilcom, Mobilcom became a listed stock corporation. As one of the first companies in the Neuer Markt stock exchange segment , Mobilcom wrote economic history. During the dotcom bubble , a speculation bubble , the company's value rose to tens of billions at times. The price increase was also due to recommendations from “ stock market gurus ” such as Egbert Prior . Following the liberalization of the German fixed network market, Mobilcom entered the call-by-call and preselection business as a connection network operator in 1998 . At the end of 1998, Mobilcom was the first provider on the German market to attempt, in a sales partnership with the print magazine Tomorrow of the Milchstrasse publishing group, on the basis of time-dependent advance payments, to establish a nationwide, narrowband Internet access ( flat rate ) for consumers, which was billed as a flat rate , but this, as with all others following relevant tests on the German narrowband access market, due to high input costs due to a lack of ex-ante - regulated narrowband Grosshandelsflatrate failed within two months. As a result, Mobilcom launched the Internet-by-Call and Internet portal business under the name Freenet with the purchased dial- up node infrastructure intended for flat rate access , which became the nucleus of Freenet.de AG , which was spun off at the end of 1999 .
The attempt to set up an own UMTS network led to considerable financial difficulties. The high costs associated with acquiring the license and setting up the network led the company to the brink of bankruptcy in 2002. The share price fell sharply, on September 13, 2002 it was a so-called penny stock for the first time . In November 2002 the plans to build the UMTS network were abandoned. In 2002, therefore, depreciation of 9.9 billion euros was necessary. Since the major shareholder France Télécom took over UMTS debts amounting to 7.1 billion euros, a total loss of 3.4 billion euros was made in 2002. The termination of the UMTS network development activities resulted in a massive downsizing of around 2,000 jobs at the beginning of 2003. All UMTS broadcasting locations that had been established up to then were sold to the mobile network operator E-Plus.
In 2003, the company turned the corner, a bankruptcy was averted thanks to the debt assumption by France Télécom and state financial support in the form of guarantees for required loans. After the former subsidiary freenet.de had taken over the fixed line business from Mobilcom, the company concentrated on the service provider business, ie marketing of mobile phone contracts for the network operators T-Mobile , Vodafone , E-Plus and O 2 (since June 1st 2005), and offered products through a chain of stores operated as a franchise system and through sales partnerships.
Thorsten Grenz was the chairman of the board until August 31, 2005 . On July 8, 2005, the planned reintegration of Freenet into Mobilcom AG was announced. Since then there have been numerous lawsuits from shareholders of both companies against the merger, so that the merger could only be realized in 2007.
Even after the merger of the companies, the mobilcom brand was retained as a sales platform for mobile communications contracts that were based on the mobile communications network operator's offerings.
The mobilcom shops, which are run as a franchise, are also to keep their names; after the merger, Internet and fixed line products from Freenet AG are now increasingly being sold there.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Annual Report 2005 - Consolidated Financial Statements of mobilcom AG. (PDF; 2.0 MB) In: mobilcom AG. April 28, 2006. Retrieved June 19, 2012 .
- ↑ Background: Not an easy job for the new MobilCom boss. Heise Online , June 23, 2002, accessed November 13, 2008 .
- ↑ Buy, buy, buy . The mirror. March 23, 1998. Retrieved August 25, 2012.