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During the recent past there have been two successive and successful takeovers of Telecom Italia, in both cases by other Italian companies and employing the device of “Chinese boxes” to secure control without the need either to hold a majority stake in the acquired company or to pay much regard to the interests of minority shareholders. This raises into question the extent to which “Anglo‐Saxon” attitudes in financial markets are making inroads in continental Europe; the willingness of continental European governments to permit foreigners to acquire control of the “commanding heights” of their economies; and the manner in which the European telecommunications sector is being restructured.

Sets out to question whether massive restructuring of the Telecoms sector in Europe will happen and what, if any, effect this would have, based on the takeover battle for Telecom Italia, involving both domestic and foreign bidders. Concludes by analysing winners and losers in the takeover’s aftermath with mainland Europe’s possible consequences.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the study of the two acquisitions of Telecom Italia carried out by Olivetti and Pirelli in the last decade, to evaluate how changes in ownership structure and corporate governance affected minority protection.

The paper presents an analysis of how Olivetti's and Pirelli's takeovers were achieved. Then the authors contrast the two operations with regards to extraction of private benefits and expropriation of minorities' wealth.

Shows that, in the case of Telecom Italia, the implementation of pyramids is connected with the existence of large private benefits, and that the acquisitions resulted in the substantial expropriation of minority shareholders.

The analysis is referred to a very unique case. While a lot can be learnt from this approach, generalisations are not trivial.

The conclusion is that groups owning several listed companies deserve a special discipline, as many are the policy implications of their presence in financial markets.

Proposes an ad hoc methodology to consider companies from the top to the bottom of the pyramid chain, and to put in a common framework the non‐simultaneous operations linked by a common strategic goal, namely an acquisition. Further, a set of governance lessons is provided.

This paper aims to identify the number of European companies among the world’s largest telecommunication, media and technology (TMT) companies. Through this, industry trends will be discerned and light shed on whether European companies are losing out to their rivals based in the USA and Asia in relation to the new highly technological economy that is emerging.

The paper begins by outlining the context for the study before detailing the data sources used in the analysis of the world’s largest TMT companies. The data are drawn from successive annual lists of the world’s largest companies published by the Financial Times.

The paper highlights the limited European presence among the world’s largest TMT companies. A significant proportion of these companies provide telecommunication services.

The paper draws on annual lists compiled by the Financial Times. The categorisation adopted in these lists changes over time and does not facilitate the identification of TMT operations in companies where the main activities are in other sectors.

There is a need for more data to be available in the public domain. One aspect of this relates to the need to extend the analysis to include smaller TMT companies, while another is the need for more detailed information regarding companies operating in more than one sector.

The paper extends existing research into structural change within the TMT sector by focussing on Europe. A longitudinal approach is adopted, with the companies uniquely divided into six lines of business.

The Electroplating Products and Equipment Business Area of Degussa AG, Frankfurt am Main, Federal Republic of Germany, has begun to supply a new selective electroplating plant. Under a co‐operation agreement with the Telmec company of Milan, Italy, this business area of Degussa, which is based in Schwäbisch Gmüd, Germany, has begun to market the Telmec SL 6 ‘Tab Plater’ throughout the world, with the exception of Italy and France. The equipment was developed specially for manufacturers of printed circuit boards, and is used for the continuous electroplating of strip contacts on these boards.

The Piedmont region in Northern Italy stretches from the Southern slopes of the Alps across the upper reaches of the alluvial Po valley to beyond Turin. It is very varied, but mainly of agricultural vocation, the principal produce being wine, rice and maize. From just North of Ivrea, where the Olivetti headquarters are situated, to Cavaglia, there is a long, forested moraine called La Serra, from which the plain starts. It was on a crystal‐clear December day that we visited the Teknecomp headquarters in Cavaglia: the snow‐covered Alps beyond La Serra looked as if they were only a short distance away in the dazzling sunlight, contrasted by the intense blue of the sky. It was hard to believe that only a couple of hours beforehand we were in a howling blizzard as we entered the Grand St Bernard tunnel!

Vitramon now offers its complete range of multilayer chips with Nickel Barrier terminations to meet the needs of automatic soldering operations at high temperatures. The company's unique Nickel Barrier process was developed by the central research department in Connecticut. The specially formulated materials used are designed to overcome problems that can occur at soldering due to thermal mismatch.

Looks at deregulation in telecommunications in Italy in 1998, and how the process has proceeded only slowly because of the lack of a legal market arbiter. Lists out the three processes of liberalization: implementation of EU liberalization directives; the institution of Italian regulators for telecommunications; and various regulatory policies implementation. Concludes telecommunications liberalization is a widely recognized benefit for customers.