Telecom Italia Open to Ceding Control of Grid in Open Fiber Deal

Chief Executive Officer Luigi Gubitosi is preparing to relinquish control of Telecom Italia SpA’s network in a bid to revive an on-again, off-again deal with rival Open Fiber SpA and extract value from the company’s multi-billion euro network, its most valuable asset, people familiar with the matter said.

The phone carrier’s shares rose as much as 6%, the most in more than eight months, after Bloomberg reported the news.

Telecom Italia said in a statement following the report that it has not taken any decisions on its network unit.

The revised merger plan comes in the wake of pressure from ...