M&A Monthly: May/June 2026

As we head into the remainder of Q2, M&A activity has certainly been on the rise across the global telecom sector. With done deals, scrapped sales, and tumultuous takeover talks, there's a lot to cover as we launch into June.

Welcome to the M&A Monthly from TeleGeography's GlobalComms team, where we track the deals that keep the world connected.

(Read last month's M&A Monthly here.)

Europe

We will kick things off in the U.K., where Indian conglomerate Bharti Enterprises ‌is reportedly seeking to increase its stake in BT Group. It’s understood that Bharti is looking to boost its shareholding in BT to just under the threshold that would require it to make a full takeover offer for the British operator; Bharti could increase its stake in BT to as much as 29.9%, up from its current holding of 24.95%. Notably, any move by Bharti to increase its stake beyond 25% would require a review by the U.K. government under the National Security and Investment Act.

Sticking with the U.K., Vodafone Group announced plans to buy CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holding Limited (CKHGT) out of the telcos’ VodafoneThree joint venture. The deal, which is worth £4.3 billion ($5.8 billion), will be carried out via a cancellation of shares, and see Vodafone acquire CKHGT’s 49% stake in VodafoneThree to become the latter’s sole owner. The merger between the two British cellcos closed on 31 May 2025.

The deal seems likely to act as a precursor to wider asset sales at CK Hutchison, with the Hong Kong-based group abandoning tentative plans for an initial public offering (IPO), as it seeks to pursue deals to offload individual businesses across Europe and Asia.

Elsewhere in Europe, Vodafone Romania’s legal merger with Telekom Romania Mobile Communications (TKRM) is scheduled to conclude by 30 June 2026, finalizing an integration process that commenced following its acquisition of the unit on 1 October 2025. The transaction saw the operator acquire TKRM’s post-paid and B2B customer bases, its retail network and a majority of its technical infrastructure for €30 million ($34.9 million), while rival Digi paid €40 million for the company’s pre-paid business and a portion of its spectrum rights and towers.

Meanwhile in France, Altice France announced an extension of the exclusivity period granted to Bouygues Telecom, Iliad Group and Orange regarding the trio’s proposed carve-up of Altice’s SFR unit. In April, the domestic trio submitted a new offer for the acquisition of SFR reflecting a total enterprise value of €20.35 billion. The exclusivity period expires on 5 June, so if a deal’s reached, it could be announced in the coming days.

Americas

Over in the U.S., Telephone and Data Systems (TDS) submitted a proposal to the Board of Directors of Array Digital Infrastructure to acquire, by way of a merger, all of the outstanding common shares of Array that aren’t currently owned by TDS in an all-stock transaction. TDS emphasized that it doesn’t intend to sell or otherwise transfer its interest in Array and won’t entertain any third-party offers for Array or its assets in lieu of its proposal. Array – which was created to manage the former UScellular tower network, after the latter’s sale to T-Mobile US – operates a tower portfolio that spans 4,400 cell sites.

Further down the line, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has had its rubber-stamp out, endorsing various spectrum-based transactions, including EchoStar’s sale of approximately 65MHz of spectrum to SpaceX and an additional 50MHz to AT&T. A matter of days later, the US watchdog approved the $1 billion sale of various mobile frequencies by the aforementioned Array to Verizon Wireless.

Turning our attentions to Latin America, TIM Brasil concluded the takeover of the 51% stake in fiber wholesaler I-Systems Solucoes de Infraestrutura that it did not already own, buying out co-investor IHS Towers. The R$947 million ($192.1 million) deal effectively reversed a 2021 transaction, which saw TIM offload a majority stake in its Brazilian fiber infrastructure unit to IHS.

Domestic rival Telefonica Brasil (Vivo) has also made moves to regain control of its own infrastructure in recent months. As such, the telco completed the acquisition of the 24.99% stake in Fibrasil Infraestrutura e Fibra Otica (FiBrasil) held by sister company Telefonica Infra in a deal worth R$458.7 million ($91.0 million). The telco previously acquired the 50% stake in FiBrasil held by Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) in November 2025. As a result of the latest agreement, Vivo now holds 100% of the shares in FiBrasil.

Asia

Finally, in one of the most eye-catching developments of the month, the August 2025 deal to merge Singaporean cellcos M1 and SIMBA Telecom was scrapped in May after the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) suspended its assessment of the proposed tie-up. M1 owner Keppel remains keen to offload its business, however, stating: ‘We believe that the telecommunication industry in Singapore is in need of, and will benefit from, consolidation and Keppel remains open to opportunities for divestment.’

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