Book Description

Latin American Telecommunications: Telefónica's Conquest offers an excellent overview of the political, economic, and social factors in Spain and Latin America that have aided the miraculous transformation of the semi-public Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica. What was once a national telephone company lagging behind its Western European counterparts has evolved into a global telecommunications giant conquering most of the Latin American telecom market. By examining the beginnings of Telefónica as an ITT subsidiary as well as its nationalization under Franco's regime and its later privatization in recent years, this book provides insight into the institutional growth as well as geographical expansion of this company, especially in Latin America where all state-run telecommunications enterprises became privatized throughout the 1990s and many were bought by Telefónica. This book is unique because it brings Telefónica's media integration to the fore, tracing and analyzing its many assets and partnerships, which range from television and film studios to multiplatform media content production and distribution companies. Telefónica's close ties with Endemol, Disney, and Bertelsmann among others are examined in detail.