The
company was founded in 1987 under the name of Telemedia International Italia, founded by
Italcable (
STET group) to operate in the
deregulated telecommunications services market. In 1993 it became a supplier of
Martín Varsavsky's
Viatel. Active in 41 countries with 100 offices, it provides advanced global telecommunications services including
data transmission,
voice,
images,
messaging,
video communication and
outsourcing to
Internet service providers (ISPs), companies and
organizations, with a market entirely outside
Italy. In 1994 the
shareholder Italcable (and its
network)
merged with
Telecom Italia. In 1997 it entered into an agreement with
IBM, whereby both companies committed to marketing each other's products. From 1 January 2003 it took the name Telecom Italia Sparkle, receiving from the
holding company Telecom Italia the task of developing the market of international services for
fixed and
mobile operators, ISPs and
multinationals. Since 2017 the company, together with
Telsy, has been subject to the
Golden Power regulation, as a company holding activities of strategic importance for defense and national security. On October 2, 2024, the
MEF and Retelit submit an offer to purchase the company to Telecom Italia for 700 million euros. On 13 January 2025, the
Milan court rejected the appeal presented by
Vivendi against the
board of directors for the sale of TIM (formerly Telecom Italia)'s network. On 15 January 2025, TIM's board of directors discussed the offer presented by the
Ministry of Economy and Finance and
Retelit for the sale of Sparkle. The proposed offer is approximately 700 million euros for full control of Sparkle. Furthermore, 20 January 2025 is also the deadline for TIM to negotiate with the
Italian Government an agreement on the refund of the 1998
license fee, an agreement worth hundreds of millions of euros. If both deals go through, there could be a further €1.8 billion cut in TIM's already reduced debt. On 15 January 2025, the stock closed the trading day with a +0.47% at a price of €0.258, confirming a bullish trend that takes it away from the minimum values reached last year. == Network ==