00:00First of all, strategically, what does this latest play mean for you?
00:04What does the bid change for you in the longer term?
00:08But I think that this is something that happens usually in the market.
00:11This is not the first, neither the last public tender offer.
00:15So it is quite easy, if I can tell you, that the market will decide.
00:21Now we have to follow the process.
00:22What for me is very important to state is that our company worked in the last five years
00:28with a market-friendly approach, and we have to follow.
00:31Then it will be the market to take a decision about the fairness of this value.
00:36Why do you think POSTA is the right partner for you instead of, for example, another telecom partner?
00:42But I think that this is something that already POSTA stated yesterday,
00:47but again, I don't want to anticipate a valuation.
00:50Let's talk like that.
00:52In Europe, we are telling everybody that we need a consolidation of the market.
00:58Before, in country, and then troll Europe.
01:01Because today, the digitalization business, it's a scale or giant business.
01:07You need to be fast, and you need to have money.
01:11So you need, financially, from a financial point of view, big shoulder.
01:16So how you can do that?
01:18Increase the footprint, horizontally-wise, so you can grow outside,
01:23or you can vertically integrate with different services.
01:27Now, it's not me that I have to say today which is the right place,
01:31but we must have clear in mind that small is not necessarily nice.
01:38Whatever will be the decision that the market will take,
01:41because it will be the market that will decide,
01:43we are in front of a very important decision.
01:47The market is moving very fast.
01:51There is a collapse between different businesses,
01:54IT, content, cloud, everything under the word of digitalization.
02:00You have to play a role that, in which way the market will define.
02:04But how much operational independence would Telecom Italia keep under this new POSTA belonging?
02:12It's worth to say, but it's more useful to hear what Matteo De Fan,
02:18the chief executive officer of POSTA, told yesterday.
02:21But again, we are at the beginning of the process.
02:25What is important is also to remember what we did,
02:29and that was also the share of the POSTA rationale.
02:32But again, we must do everything that is market-friendly.
02:36Does this take you out of the European consolidation story?
02:40No. Why?
02:42If I'm not wrong, this is what was declared again by Matteo De Fan,
02:46but I cannot place his place.
02:48Yes, he clearly stated that he continued to foresee the market consolidation
02:52as a key milestone.
02:56Again, we are too many in Europe.
02:58Also at the European level, now everybody is starting to ask for a consolidation.
03:03I'm used to do a stupid example that makes everything clear for everybody.
03:07I don't know if you have a daughter or a son.
03:10You can have a party, one cake of the same size.
03:13If there are 100 children, try to eat the cake of three children, something changes.
03:19Yeah, I tell you, we come from a big family.
03:21Even three people trying to eat the same cake is a little bit of a nightmare.
03:24Would you pursue, would Telecom Italia actually pursue cross-border consolidations?
03:29Like, if you'd give me some kind of timeline of what you think will happen at this point,
03:33what does it look like?
03:34But we told that also in the past.
03:37Until today, we must try to increase and improve our number,
03:41because sometimes we forget that until I was here less than two years ago,
03:46and we were discussing if we should be able to survive.
03:50Now, we solve the issue of the debt, we refinance the debt,
03:54we put the operation under control,
03:55and now we have in front of us some opportunity,
03:59which are these opportunities that are more or less the same everywhere in Europe.
04:03In the consumer business, consolidation and customer platform strategy.
04:09On the enterprise segment, digital sovereignty.
04:13If I'm not wrong, it's at EC level a tough discussion about what really means digital sovereignty.
04:22And these are two places in which we prepare the company to play the right role.
04:27But when you find out about this offer, I mean, what's your first reaction?
04:31Is it, oh, we're going to be owned by, you know, we're going to be going back to government control?
04:35Do you look at the synergy?
04:37So we heard about 700 billion.
04:38Is there going to be more?
04:40Like, what's your first reaction?
04:42Unfortunately, I'm not the owner of the company.
04:44I'm an executive.
04:45And I used to say also to my team, we have to act in our company,
04:49always if we are a management team that will stay here forever.
04:54Because if you start to take decision just in the short term,
04:58just to give an idea for the renewal,
05:01you will never take the right decision.
05:02So keep calm.
05:04It's something that happens in the market.
05:05The market will evaluate.
05:07We have to continue to work on what we were good to do,
05:11deliver the number and work for the future of the company.
05:13Where do you see the real synergies?
05:16But we already declared in the consumer, the sales channel,
05:20we were talking about customer platform, together with POSTE,
05:26with or without the public tender.
05:30We always declared that we can increase our footprint,
05:33we can increase our portfolio of services.
05:36On the digital sovereignty, it's clear that POSTE can be a very powerful partner.
05:42Then I think that Mathieu de Fontaine has to declare that he did that
05:47because he thinks that there will be synergy,
05:49and he wants to take 100% of the synergy.
05:52Are you expecting to stay if the merger goes through,
05:56if the acquisition goes through?
05:57But today this is not important.
05:59What is important is the interest of all the shareholders.
06:02We are paid to do the best for our company in the medium and long term
06:07with a market-friendly approach.
06:09If you start to work thinking what will happen to you,
06:12you will take the wrong decision.
06:13I mean, what I feel feels very important is can you go after the U.S.?
06:18Can you be a real competitor for China?
06:21Do you think this gives you the best chances or, you know,
06:25Italian telecoms the best chance to really compete
06:27if you're not part of a European cross-border story?
06:31I think that, first of all, it's not against China or against U.S.
06:36It's a matter of reciprocity.
06:39If in U.S. or in China they apply specific rule,
06:44it's important that we do the same in Europe.
06:47So we have to start to recover a kind of digital sovereignty.
06:51If you look around, whatever you see all around of you works on digital.
06:56And we have to manage the digitalization of our country
07:00and our continent, Europe.
07:01And this is the most important thing.
07:03To do that, we must invest.
07:05But does Europe do enough to do that?
07:08This is the time to be brave.
07:10At the European level, we must be brave to take a decision.
07:13Inaction is not an option.
07:14It's also Draghi that mentioned that.
07:16We don't have to be scared about some dogma that in the past could work.
07:22Consolidation is not necessarily a bad word.
07:25Companies are built to make money to be reinvested.
07:30And today, the telco business in Europe is not a so rich sector.
07:35But you're talking about cross-border consolidation, right?
07:38Which we've heard a lot of.
07:39There's been quite a lot of pushback.
07:40Today it's too late to do cross-border consolidation.
07:43Because if you see, there are already.
07:45It's stupid, yeah.
07:46So you have two approaches.
07:48Vertical and horizontal.
07:49Horizontal, geography.
07:52Vertical, sorry.
07:53If you integrate the portfolio and you play a more important role in a single nation.
07:57Well, thank you so much for a very interesting conversation.
08:00That was Pietro Labriola, the chief executive of Telecom Italian.
08:03Yeah.
08:04And just.
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