TDC trades expansion for $6.6bn – the new face of Nordic triple play

TV, broadband, telecommunications and content markets across the Nordics are in farcical states. The collapse of Modern Times Group’s merger with Danish operator TDC this week, before the ink was even dry on the initial announcement, was the latest in a spate of frantic M&A activity – which we feel is essentially all about overseas private equity firms jostling to conquer the entire Nordic region. A consortium of local pension funds and Australian investment bank Macquarie have scrambled together $6.6 billion to acquire TDC, triggering TDC to abandon its $2.5 billion bid for MTG’s Nordic broadcasting and entertainment business. Potentially providing another plot twist, Swedish telco Telia has also been investigating a takeover offer for TDC, which has actually been…