TeliaSonera
TeliaSonera is a public limited company incorporated under the laws of Sweden. The share is listed on the Stockholm and Helsinki stock exchanges.
TeliaSonera is a result of the merger of Telia and Sonera. The merger took place in December 2002 and brought together two of the leading telecommunications companies in the Nordic region and formed a leading telecommunications Group in the Nordic and Baltic regions with strong market positions even in Eurasia, Russia and Turkey.
Telia
Telia - the telecommunications leader in Sweden- was earlier operated by the Swedish State as a public service corporation, Televerket. Government directives at the time stipulated that as a fundamental principle both operative expenses and investments should be financed from customer revenues.
Although the Swedish market never has been protected by a legal monopoly, Televerket was for a long while the only provider of public voice telecommunications services in Sweden.
Low thresholds for establishment and the high IT maturity of users caused new actors to enter the Swedish market in the 1980s.
In 1993, the government introduced a Telecommunications Act, which made it mandatory to apply for a licence to provide telecommunication services on a larger scale and a national regulatory authority was established to enforce the law.
In 1993, the Swedish State transformed Televerket from a state-owned public utility into a limited company and changed the name to Telia AB.
In June 2000, the Swedish state sold 30 percent of the shares in an initial public offering and the Telia share was listed on the A-list of the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Telia became thus a private listed company.
Sonera
Sonera - the telecommunications leader in Finland - originated from the state organization Telegraph Office of Finland, created shortly after the foundation of the independent state of Finland in 1917. The Telegraph Office initially operated a fixed long distance network and a number of local fixed networks and was merged with the Post of Finland ten years later and renamed Post and Telecommunications of Finland.
The Post and Telecommunications of Finland had a monopoly on long distance and international telephone services until 1992, when the state began granting licenses to competing operators. In 1994, the organization was converted into a limited liability company, PT Finland, and the businesses were divided into two corporations Finland Post and Telecom Finland.
In December 1997, the Finnish Parliament approved a gradual and partial privatization of Telecom Finland and the name was changed to Sonera.
In November 1998, the Finnish state reduced its holding to 77.8 percent in a public initial offering and the Sonera share was listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. The state further reduced its holdings in 1999 and 2000 and before entering the co-operation with Telia, the shareholding of the Finnish state ended up at 52.8 percent.
