The board of Telecom Italia (TIM) has unanimously approved a voluntary public tender and exchange offer from Poste Italiane, paving the way for a massive consolidation in Italy’s digital and telecommunications sector.(Reuters)
Poste Italiane, which is two-thirds owned by the Italian state, launched a bid in March to buy up the remaining shares of TIM that it does not already own. Poste had already established itself as TIM’s largest single shareholder after acquiring a 20% stake last year. The total valuation of the bid stands at more than €13 billion ($14.9 billion).
In an official statement released following the Saturday meeting, TIM’s board expressed full support for the deal. The board deemed the offered consideration financially fair and positively assessed both the strategic rationale and the long-term business prospects of the operation, noting that it aligns seamlessly with TIM’s current trajectory.
For Poste Italiane, the acquisition represents a massive gamble on the future of Italy’s digital infrastructure. While the company is traditionally known for its network of 12,600 post offices distributing pensions and physical mail, it has quietly positioned itself as a major digital player over the last two decades.
Poste began its digital transformation in the early 2000s by expanding into electronic payments. Since then, it has successfully enrolled 30 million users—roughly 70% of the country’s participating population—into Italy’s digital identity system, which citizens use to access public services online.
By integrating TIM into its portfolio, Poste aims to rapidly accelerate its expansion into advanced telecom, cloud, and digital services. Leadership at Poste argues that the tie-up will establish a larger, state-backed national champion uniquely capable of building distributed computing and tech infrastructure across Italy.