The German carrier, Deutsche Telekom is in hot water just now after a discovery over the weekend that the company might have illegally monitored phone traffic between its company officials and journalists. Apparently the illicit spying was conducted in order to try and stop information leaks regarding the company’s dramatic restructuring involving massive job cuts back in 2005.
The company claims to have discovered the illegal behavior itself and has handed the case over to the state prosecutor for further investigation. Even so, this is not very savory behavior from a company that commands more than its fair share of the telecommunications market in Germany.
Interestingly the German government retained a significant stake in the company after the former entirely state owned Deutsche Bundespost was privatized to become Deutsche Telekom back in 1996. To this day the German government still holds a 15.7 percent stake in company stock directly, and another 14 percent through the government bank.
A pretty damning connection that the German people will no doubt be quick to point out and the German government quick to downplay. Still, innocent until proven guilty and all that…
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