Vodafone buys Ono for $10B to add landlines and cable to its wireless service

Looks like landlines are still a thing in Europe — so much so that British telecom giant Vodafone just shelled out $10 billion (€7.2 billion) for Ono, a Spanish cable-and-landline company, according to a GigaOM report.

Last month, Vodafone sold back its 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless to the parent company for $130 billion, as we reported. The deal was the third largest corporate buyout ever, and it gave a hefty infusion of cash to Vodafone to settle accounts and give it the freedom to make purchases, such as this one.

This acquisition follows several telecom recent deals, a trend including both U.S. and foreign companies. These deals include T-Mobile’s purchase of MetroPCS for $1.5 billion, Japan’s Softbank purchasing 78 percent of Sprint for $21.6 billion, AT&T buying Leap Wireless for $1.1 billion, and Vodafone acquiring 76.57 percent of Kabel Deutschland for $7.7 billion, according to GigaOM.

Vodafone’s purchase of a majority stake in German cable operator Kabel was a telltale sign of a European telecom trend of the consolidation of various companies into more well-rounded providers (combining wireless with landline, adding Internet providers or television cable, and so on). The acquisition of Ono is thus yet another step in that direction.