Draka Holding N.V. is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 manufacturer of electrical cable

Cable

A cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics cables, otherwise known as wire ropes, are used for lifting, hauling and towing or conveying force through tension. In electrical engineering cables are used to carry...

s for the telecommunications, energy

Energy industry

The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution...

, infrastructure

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...

 and automotive industries

Automotive industry

The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....

, founded in 1910 by Jan Teewis Duyvis. It formerly had a joint venture with Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...

 for manufacturing optical fibre

Optical fiber

An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...

, but bought out its partner's 49.9% stake for €209 million in December 2007. In April 2008, Draka announced that it would close a factory in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, as its customers planned to relocate to North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

 and Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

 in search of lower wages.

In 2009, Italian cable manufacturer Prysmian

Prysmian

Prysmian is an Italian-based multinational corporation headquartered in Milan and listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, manufacturing and laying cables for the energy and telecommunications sectors, it's the market leader, also thanks to the acquisition of Draka Holding...

 made a takeover offer for Draka, but doubts began to emerge in August. Prysmian called off the takeover talks in early September. In October 2010, French cable maker Nexans

Nexans

Nexans S.A. is a French company which manufactures copper and optical fiber cable products for the infrastructure, industrial and construction markets. It is the world's largest manufacturer of cables. It has an industrial presence in nearly 40 countries, over 23,000 employees and sales of around...

 made a €15/share offer to buy the 43.9% of the company held by Flint Beheer, an investment fund owned by the wealthy Fentener van Vlissingen

Fentener van Vlissingen

Fentener van Vlissingen is an old Dutch family of entrepreneurs.Originating from Utrecht, the family of Lutheran descent became known for being merchants of wine, wool and honey. The family was also known for its involvement in the brick-making and brewing industries. The family soon built...

 family. Nexands indicated that it would sell off Draka's telecommunications activities. However, Draka rejected Nexans' offer, and on 22 November 2010 instead accepted Prysmian's new offer of €17.20/share (9.1x EBITDA), creating the world's largest cable maker by revenue. Prysmian intends to integrate Draka's operations into their own, rather than breaking it up; integration costs are estimated at €170 million over three years.