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Telecom M&A: Here Are the Latest Deal Trends Worldwide
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Facing unprecedented industry transformation and emerging competitive threats, many telecommunications companies are turning to mergers and acquisitions to add new capabilities and evolve their businesses for the next era. At the same time, in the biggest industry reset since deregulation, the integrated telco is giving way to more disaggregated, narrowly focused business models.

Here are some of the key takeaways from telecom M&A activity in 2024.

  • Deal value up: Global telecom M&A showed signs of recovery after a downturn throughout 2022 and 2023. Deal value more than doubled year over year, to about $127 billion in 2024, surpassing $100 billion for the first time since 2021. The Americas accounted for 62% of last year’s global total.
  • Trends to watch: Mobile and fixed network companies continue to pursue scale deals to expand their networks and geographic presence. For example, see the deals between Canada’s BCE and US-based Ziply Fiber as well as Vocus and TPG in Australia. Meanwhile, financial investors and infrastructure companies are acquiring tower assets and data centers, which suggests confidence in digital infrastructure’s business fundamentals despite recent headwinds. For example, in November, real estate fund Aermont Capital bought Spain-based data center operator Nabiax from Asterion Industrial Partners and Telefónica. Across the Atlantic Ocean, SBA Communications struck a $975 million deal with Millicom for 7,000 tower assets throughout Central America.
  • Biggest deal: Verizon’s $20.3 billion acquisition of Frontier was the year’s largest announced transaction.
  • Scale deal momentum: Scale deals accounted for 58% of global deal value in 2024. That’s a notable shift from the previous two years, although more than half of last year’s scale deal value came from just two transactions (Verizon–Frontier and Charter’s $16.6 billion purchase of Liberty Broadband). Infrastructure divestments accounted for 19% of deal value last year, while mobile and fixed divestments made up about 16%. Infrastructure divestments accounted for a much larger portion of telecom M&A activity from 2019 through 2022, but high interest rates and other macroeconomic challenges reversed that trend.
  • Long-term view: Scale deals account for about 39% of all deal value over the past five years, the largest share among deal types. Infrastructure divestments have the second-largest share at 31% during that period.

Read our 2025 M&A Report

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