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Bitė Group

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Bitė Group
Company typePrivate
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1995
HeadquartersVilnius, Lithuania
Area served
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
Key people
Pranas Kuisys
ProductsMobile telephony
Revenue€321.355 million (2023)[1]
€64.244 million (2023)[1]
€55.982 million (2023)[1]
OwnerProvidence Equity
Websitewww.bitegroup.net

Bitė Group (Lithuanian: Bitės grupė) is a Lithuanian telecommunication conglomerate currently owned by Providence Equity Partners since 2016, having been owned by TDC in Denmark until 2007 and by Mid Europa Partners between 2007 and 2016. Of Baltic states, Bitė mainly operates in telecommunication sector in Lithuania and Latvia, but through its media business TV3 Group (which Bitė assumed through Providence's acquisition of Viasat's Baltic business in 2017), it has an additional presence in Estonia.

Bitė Group is a long standing regional partner of Vodafone, having first signed a Partner Network Agreement for its Lithuanian mobile service in 2003. The agreement was extended to its Latvian service in 2006.

For years, Bitė Group has been represented by Bite Finance International B.V., a company registered in the Netherlands. It is now[when?] represented by PLT VII Finance S.à r.l. registered in Luxembourg.

History

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Bitė began its operation in Lithuania in 1995.

On 21 July 2003, Bitė signed a Partner Network Agreement for Lithuania with British multinational mobile telecommunication company Vodafone.[2]

In 2005, Bitė entered Latvian market. Following this, Bitė's Partner Network Agreement with Vodafone was extended to its Latvian service in April 2006.[3]

In early 2007, Danish company TDC announced the sale of Bitė Group to Mid Europa Partners.[4][5]

In December 2015, Mid Europa Partners announced that it was selling the group to Providence Equity Partners; the sale was completed in February 2016.[6][7][8]

In March 2017, it was announced that Providence was acquiring Viasat's Baltic media and satellite television business for €115 million from Swedish company Modern Times Group (MTG), which was in the process of transforming itself into a video game company.[9][10] In May 2017, it was emerged that Providence-owned Bitė would be the party to purchase MTG assets in question.[11][12][13] The sale was completed in October 2017.[14] The newly formed pan-Baltic media company, initially named All Media Baltics, was renamed TV3 Group in 2019.

Operations

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Lithuania

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Bitė began its operation as a mobile network operator in 1995 with its services over GSM, becoming the second company to provide mobile telephony in Lithuania (the first being Omnitel, which was later merged with Teo and rebranded as Telia in 2017).

Bitė subsequently launched EDGE services (2.5G) in 2004, HSDPA services (3.5G) in 2006, and LTE-A service in 2014.

Latvia

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Bitė entered Latvian telecommunications market in 2005 through its subsidiary Bite Latvija.

Estonia

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Bitė Group is yet to have a presence in Estonian telecommunications market, but it has expressed its intention to launch their business there once they win the Estonian 5G spectrum auction.[15]

Meanwhile, TV3 Group's Estonian subsidiary AS TV Play Baltics operates direct-to-home satellite television service Home3 (formerly known as Viasat and TVPlay Home) for customers there and two other Baltic countries.

Assets

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Telecommunications
  • Lithuania: UAB Bitė Lietuva
    • UAB TeleTower
    • UAB Mezon
  • Latvia: SIA Bite Latvija
    • SIA TeleTower
    • SIA Unistars
Media (UAB All Media Group, d.b.a. TV3 Group)
  • Estonia: AS All Media Eesti (television broadcaster)
    • Media Invest Holding AS (radio broadcaster)
    • All Media Digital OÜ
    • Buduaar Media OÜ
    • Artist Media OÜ
  • Latvia: SIA All Media Latvia (television broadcaster)
    • SIA Star FM (radio broadcaster)
  • Lithuania: UAB All Media Lithuania (television broadcaster)
    • UAB All Media Radijas (radio broadcaster)
    • UAB All Media Digital
  • AS Go3 Baltics Latvijas (operator of Home3, Go3 and pan-Baltic TV channels licensed in Estonia)
  • Bite Broadcasting Services Ltd (operator of pan-Baltic TV channels licensed in the United Kingdom)

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Bitė Lietuva, UAB revenue, profit". www.rekvizitai.vz.lt.
  2. ^ "Vodafone signs Partner Network Agreement with Bite [sic]". Telecom Paper. 21 July 2003. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  3. ^ "Vodafone, BITE [sic] Latvija sign co-branding agreement". Telecom Paper. 11 April 2006. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  4. ^ "TDC to divest Bitë [sic]". CommsUpdate. PriMetrica, Inc., dba TeleGeography. 22 January 2007. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  5. ^ "TDC divests its Baltic subsidiary Bité [sic]" (Press release). TDC A/S. 19 January 2007. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  6. ^ "MidEuropa Partners Announces Sale of Bite [sic] to Providence" (Press release). Mid Europa Partners. 24 December 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  7. ^ "MidEuropa Completes Sale of Bite [sic] to Providence" (Press release). Mid Europa Partners. 16 February 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  8. ^ "Bite [sic] sold by Mid Europa Partners to Providence". CommsUpdate. PriMetrica, Inc., dba TeleGeography. 4 January 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  9. ^ "Modern Times Group sells Baltic ops as it turns towards digital". Digital TV Europe. Informa. 17 March 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  10. ^ "Sweden's MTG sells Baltic broadcasting in shift to digital". Reuters. 17 March 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  11. ^ "P.Kuisys: "Providence" verslą Baltijos šalyse plėtos per "Bitę Lietuvą"" (in Lithuanian). Baltic News Service. 10 May 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  12. ^ Naprys, Ernestas (10 May 2017). "Pranas Kuisys: įsigydami TV3 priartinsime vaizdo turinį klientams". 15min (in Lithuanian). UAB 15min. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  13. ^ Vahtla, Aili, ed. (11 May 2017). "CEO: Providence to develop Baltic business via Bitė Lietuva". news.err.ee. Eesti Rahvusringhääling. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  14. ^ "MTG completes sale of Baltic broadcast business". Digital TV Europe. Informa. 18 October 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  15. ^ O'Grady, Vaughan (4 February 2021). "Potential expansion in Estonia, possible setback in Lithuania for Bite[sic] Group". Developing Telecoms. Developing Telecoms Ltd. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
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