Many of the readers of that column will have seen in the media that the National Telephone Company of Spain, as it was originally called, may be receiving purchase offers from its corporate headquarters in Madrid, citing the amount of 900 million euros. With the particularity that at the same time a contract would be signed to follow the current owner as a tenant.
Before existing Telefónica, Spain was a mosaic of small telecos without sufficient coordination to talk about a true national system. They were the times of the Dictatura de Primo de Rivera, and the general and its directors estimated that, even as a monopoly, it was convenient to conceive a unique system for the entire country, granting that service to the American company ITT.
This was done, improving the communication of the Spaniards, and immediately building a large and modern building for registered office, which continues to crowned the Gran Vía de Madrid between Cibeles and the Plaza de España. It caused sensation in his time: the largest European skyscraper, with its 90 meters high, considering reference for almost any comparison. The author of the plans was the Spanish architect Cárdenas, inspired by New York.
Then came the Civil War (1936-1939) during which Telefónica continued to serve the two zones, the Republican and the National. And further, in the postwar period he was one hundred percent. A long story in which, in addition, for a while, Telefónica was star in the Stock Exchange, with the Matildes.
For many special dividends that the current directors of the company think, the Great Palace of Communications is a bit of all Spaniards. It could well be said that the telephone must remain from Telefónica.