1 & 1 Versatel

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1 & 1 Versatel GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1999 (market entry as "Versatel Germany")
Seat Dusseldorf , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management Soeren Trebst
Number of employees > 1,000
sales 547 million euros (2013)
Branch telecommunications
Website www.1und1.net

1 & 1 Versatel head office in Düsseldorf

The 1 & 1 Versatel GmbH (until 30 June 2016: Versatel GmbH ) is a telecommunications provider with a focus on business customers with headquarters in Berlin and operational headquarters in Dusseldorf and since mid-2014, a subsidiary of United Internet AG. As a provider of voice, Internet and data services on the German market, the company achieved total sales of EUR 547 million in the 2013 financial year. The company has been trading as 1 & 1 Versatel GmbH since July 1, 2016. The new name emphasizes the affiliation to the 1 & 1 group, the renaming should announce an intended more intensive cooperation between the two companies. United Internet subsidiary 1 & 1 launched private customer offers in 2017 that are based on the fiber optic connections of 1 & 1 Versatel.

history

The Versatel companies originally operating in Germany were subsidiaries of the listed Versatel Telecom International NV, based in Amsterdam , through a holding company . In the course of a uniform market and brand presence in all German core markets and the establishment of company-wide competence centers in 2004, the company was fundamentally restructured. Today's Versatel company was created in 2005 through the merger of the German Versatel companies and the Tropolys Group, which, like Versatel, had previously integrated numerous infrastructure-based regional and city network operators. Versatel has been wholly owned by the United Internet Group since mid-2014, and the name was changed to 1 & 1 Versatel in July 2016.

1999–2004: First steps

Versatel began its presence in the German market in 1999 with the acquisition of VEW telnet and KomTel . As a result, the companies Tesion and Completel were bought. In the years that followed, the focus was primarily on the constant development and expansion of the company's own fiber optic network.

In 2004 the company consolidated its market and brand presence. BerliKomm was bought in the summer of the same year . In the Emscher-Lippe area, Versatel was sold by the regional provider GELSEN-NET .

2005–2006: A new group emerges

In July 2005, the Swedish telecommunications provider Tele2 took over the Dutch company Versatel. Their German subsidiaries were then sold to the majority shareholder of Tropolys, the private equity company Apax. Then Apax sold its Tropolys stake in Versatel, uniting the two companies under one roof.

2007–2012: Versatel on the stock exchange

In April 2007 Versatel was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In the run-up to the IPO, the company was internally restructured and converted into an AG.

After the IPO in 2007, Vienna II Sarl, Luxembourg, an Apax holding company, was still the largest shareholder with around 42 percent. United Internet held a 25 percent stake in Versatel. Cyrte Investments, a Dutch private equity investor, also owned about 25 percent of the capital.

In July 2008 Versatel took over all shares in the cable network operator AKF. Five months later, in December 2008, Versatel founded a joint venture to acquire "MediaHome GmbH". Organizationally, both holdings were subordinated to "Versatel Kabel GmbH". With the sale of this company (renamed Deutsche Telekabel after being spun off ) to the French financial investor Checkers Capital, the company withdrew completely from the end customer cable business in July 2010. In April 2009 Versatel acquired all shares in a local telecommunications company in Freiburg. Versatel is thus strengthening its business customer segment in the South region in particular.

On May 9, 2009, Alain D. Bandle became CEO of Versatel AG. With effect from October 1, 2011, the Versatel AG supervisory board released Alain D. Bandle from his duties as chairman of the board and at the same time commissioned COO Joachim Bellinghoven provisionally to chair the board. In 2012, the US private equity company KKR took over Versatel from the previous owners through its subsidiary VictorianFibre Holding GmbH for a purchase price of 240 million euros. The previous three major shareholders, Apax Partners, Cyrte and United Internet received a purchase price of EUR 5.50 per share. United Internet, in turn, bought back 25.1% of the shares in the Versatel parent company VictorianFibre Holding via an option right in November 2012.

In 2012 Versatel took over 100% of the shares in the local telecommunications provider KielNET from Stadtwerke Kiel AG and freenet Cityline GmbH, with the KielNET brand continued to be used until 2016. On July 1, 2016, the KielNET brand was replaced by 1 & 1 Versatel.

On July 1, 2012, Johannes Pruchnow took over as CEO.

The Versatel share was listed until the end of 2012: On December 18, 2012, the legal form was converted from an AG to a GmbH.

2013: Another acquisition

On October 21, 2013 Versatel announced the purchase of the Hamburg fiber optic network from Telefónica Germany.

2014: Takeover by United Internet

On September 3, 2014, the Internet provider United Internet, which has been acting as an anchor investor in Versatel since 2008 with a brief interruption (KKR deal), announced the full takeover of Versatel with retroactive effect from July 1, 2014. As expected, just a few days later, on September 26, 2014, the takeover approval was granted by the Federal Cartel Office without any conditions. United Internet will pay around 586 million euros in cash to KKR for the remaining 74.9 percent stake in the company. In addition, the Versatel net bank liabilities in the amount of EUR 361 million will be redeemed from new loans taken out by United Internet. In addition to these initial investments, United Internet intends to provide DSL wholesale services directly from the new subsidiary Versatel for its own networkless subsidiary 1 & 1, and thus save up to approx. 55 million euros annually. In addition, United Internet has planned substantial investments for the further expansion of the Versatel DSL infrastructure in the amount of around 145 million euros up to 2019. In the future, United Internet intends to implement its own VDSL offers via the joint technical network infrastructure with Versatel in addition to ADSL2 + products. The Versatel management expressly welcomed the great commitment and looks positively into the future together in the United Internet group of companies.

2016: Versatel becomes 1 & 1 Versatel

Jürgen Hernichel has been Chairman of the Management Board / CEO since March 1, 2016. In July 2016 it was officially announced that Versatel had changed its name to 1 & 1 Versatel. In doing so, the company would like to focus more on belonging to the 1 & 1 group. As the driver of the gigabit society, 1 & 1 Versatel will continue to push network expansion and invest in its corporate customer segment. On July 1, 2016, the KielNET brand was also replaced by 1 & 1 Versatel.

2018: New management

On January 1, 2018, Walter Denk replaced Jürgen Hernichel as Chairman of the Management / CEO. Other managing directors of the company are Guido Mannshausen (CFO), Jan Lange (CSO), Claus Beck (CTO) and Axel Wehrle (COO).

present

Business environment and competition

The company is involved in the industry associations Federal Association of Broadband Communication , BITKOM and VATM and claims to have a fiber optic network with a total length of 47,000 kilometers in Germany. Much of it is at regional and urban level. This means that 1 & 1 Versatel is one of the few providers on the German market that has its own landline connections that are independent of Deutsche Telekom .

On April 14, 2015, 1 & 1 Versatel announced on the company's own blog VersaBlog that all private and business customers would still use real ISDN at least until 2020 and possibly beyond (depending on the regionally available technology and the corresponding spare parts available) -Quality at the connection will benefit.

The Broadband Report Germany published by DSLWEB on April 16, 2015 for the fourth quarter of 2014 shows that 1 & 1 Versatel, together with its sister company 1 & 1 (as of December 31, 2014), has 4.19 million broadband contracts and the Parent company United Internet thus ranks second behind Deutsche Telekom in terms of the number of broadband connections. With this counting method, however, Vodafone and Kabel Deutschland were still treated and presented as two separate companies.

Product portfolio

The company focuses on solutions for business customers, public and private large and corporate customers as well as public and non-profit institutions. 1 & 1 Versatel offers various services in the telecommunications sector, including advance services from other telecommunications companies. Since 1 & 1 Versatel does not have its own mobile network, it operates as a so-called MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) over the Telefónica Germany network and offers its own mobile network tariffs for business customers. As part of this cooperation, 1 & 1 Versatel has also been offering landline and mobile communications products nationwide for business customers since August 2009, including LTE tariffs since 2011. By contrast, until the end of March 2014, the mobile connections for private customers were only switched in the E-Plus mobile network . Other important business areas of 1 & 1 Versatel are Internet hosting and corporate networking based on Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and fiber optics. For example, 1 & 1 Versatel has been renting Darkfiber to the BelWü state university network in Baden-Württemberg since January 1998 (then still under the name Tesion) .

At the beginning of 2015 (in the period from March to April), the company's private customer portfolio (with the exception of the fixed-line and DSL areas) was consolidated. 1 & 1 Versatel has discontinued its previously independent offers for private customers in the areas of mobile communications as well as hosting and homepage. Since then, the websites of 1 & 1 Versatel in the private customer area have been referring to the corresponding private customer offers of the sister company 1 & 1 . In the mobile communications sector, private customers of 1 & 1 Versatel now have the free choice between the E-network from Telefónica Germany or the D-network from Vodafone .

Managing directors

Sören Trebst has been Chairman of the Management Board / CEO since April 1, 2020. Other managing directors of the company are Guido Mannshausen (CFO), Jan Lange (CSO), Claus Beck (CTO) and Axel Wehrle (COO).

criticism

At the beginning of 2007, cases became known in which Versatel, along with other telecommunications providers, had stored personal data of customers, which was not permitted in this form. Among other things, Versatel was accused of having saved user data not only for billing purposes, but also for the purpose of subsequently determining the user of a dynamic IP address. Furthermore, upon request, the data was not only given to the law enforcement authorities, but also to law firms. In doing so, the company relied in part on laws that were not intended for this purpose. However, this practice seems to have been abandoned by Versatel in the meantime. IP addresses are stored for between 0 and 4 days for Internet access.

In March 2014 it became known that Versatel was migrating its private mobile customers from the previously used E-Plus network to the Telefonica network (O2) on April 1st. This step recently caused some displeasure among the Versatel mobile phone customers affected in private tariffs - especially in view of the medium-term network interconnection of Telefonica and E-Plus due to the merger.

Web links

Commons : 1 & 1 Versatel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Connections are our business - company profile ( Memento from August 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ; PDF)
  2. ↑ a b c d Imprint. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  3. ↑ https://www.bundesanzeiger.de/ebanzwww/wexsservlet?session.sessionid=b687e0f6a1a9d7d1d09f08d610d02f12&page.navid=detailsearchlisttodetailsearchdetail&fts_search_list.selected Genealogie=a2e7e88ftsoter50c14search = /wexsservlet?session.sessionid=b687e0f6a1a9d7d1d09f08d610d02f12&page.navid=detailsearchlisttodetailsearchdetail&fts_search_list.selected=a2e7e94ccf3c1488&fts_search_list = 0450850128&fts_search_list = 0450850128 & fts_search_list = 045085012 | archivable date - archived = 1: 04508502
  4. ↑ a b United Internet AG: United Internet takes over 100% of the Versatel shares. September 3, 2014, accessed February 24, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c d company. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  6. ↑ https://www.bundesanzeiger.de/ebanzwww/wexsservlet?session.sessionid=b687e0f6a1a9d7d1d09f08d610d02f12&page.navid=detailsearchlisttodetailsearchdetail&fts_search_list.selected Genealogie=a2e7e88ftsoter50c14search = /wexsservlet?session.sessionid=b687e0f6a1a9d7d1d09f08d610d02f12&page.navid=detailsearchlisttodetailsearchdetail&fts_search_list.selected=a2e7e94ccf3c1488&fts_search_list = 0450850128&fts_search_list = 0450850128 & fts_search_list = 045085012 | archivable date - archived = 1: 04508502
  7. ↑ Thorsten Neuhetzki: Versatel becomes 1 & 1 Versatel. Retrieved November 10, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Daniel Molenda: 1 & 1 switches fiber optic connections for private customers. In: teltarif.de. February 12, 2017. Retrieved February 14, 2017 .
  9. ↑ a b Jürgen Berke : United Internet: Versatel is as blue as 1 & 1. In: wiwo.de. July 1, 2016, accessed February 24, 2020 .
  10. ↑ United Internet: Fixed line operator is now called 1 & 1 Versatel. In: golem.de. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  11. ↑ a b Johannes Pruchnow takes over as CEO of Versatel AG. April 24, 2012. Retrieved November 18, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Versatel receives takeover offer from KKR. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved October 3, 2016 .
  13. ↑ history. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved October 3, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Versatel AG takes over KielNET GmbH. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Versatel changes the legal form from an AG to a GmbH. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved October 3, 2016 .
  16. ↑ Versatel and Telefónica agree long-term fiber optic cooperation. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  17. ↑ a b Bundeskartellamt approves fiber optic cooperation between Versatel and Telefónica. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Thorsten Neuhetzki: 1 & 1 parent company is allowed to take over Versatel. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Which network does Versatel use? Network coverage and quality. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Change in the management at Versatel: Johannes Pruchnow leaves the company and hands over the chairmanship of the management to Jürgen Hernichel from March. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  21. ↑ versatel.de
  22. ↑ New boss for 1 & 1 Versatel . ( crn.de [accessed on January 23, 2018]).
  23. ↑ Telecom Handel: 1 & 1 Versatel: Walter Denk is the new managing director . In: Telecom trade . ( telecom-handel.de [accessed on January 23, 2018]).
  24. ↑ a b Management. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  25. ^ A b Waltraud Ritzer: 1 & 1 Versatel: Jörg Elsäßer becomes the new CCO. In: telecom-handel.de. April 28, 2017. Retrieved July 21, 2017 .
  26. ↑ Thorsten Neuhetzki: The Drillisch takeover could lead to a new mobile network in the long term. In: teltarif.de. May 12, 2017. Retrieved July 21, 2017 .
  27. ↑ Versatel available nationwide - Versatel press release. (PDF) Retrieved November 22, 2017 .
  28. ↑ Versatel customers benefit from real ISDN quality - probably until at least 2020! In: 1und1.net. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  29. ↑ DSLWEB Broadband Report Germany Q4 2014. Accessed on February 24, 2020 .
  30. ↑ Versatel introduces new wireless products for business customers. September 23, 2011, accessed November 18, 2017 .
  31. ↑ Management | 1 & 1 Versatel. Retrieved April 8, 2020 .
  32. ↑ Telecom Handel: 1 & 1 Versatel: Sören Trebst follows Walter Denk. Accessed April 8, 2020 (German).
  33. ↑ Peter Mühlbauer: Who saves the connection data (and claims the opposite). Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  34. ↑ Data protection. In: 1und1.net. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  35. ↑ wiki.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/Speicherzeit
  36. ↑ versaforum.de ( Memento from June 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )