Deutsche Telekom's Two-Track Week: Elliott's Stake, a Satellite Voice Call, and a Buyback That Keeps Rolling

Elliott reportedly presses Deutsche Telekom to shelve a T-Mobile US deal, as buybacks continue and a satellite voice call points to a Q4 2026 launch.

Deutsche Telekom found itself pulled in two directions at once in the opening days of September. On one side sits an activist investor pressing for a rethink of the group's US ambitions; on the other, an engineering milestone that quietly widens its industrial connectivity footprint. The market, for its part, took both in stride.

Elliott Investment Management has built a position in the Bonn-based carrier and is pushing management to shelve any potential combination with T-Mobile US, according to a Reuters report dated September 3. The exact size of the stake was not disclosed. Investors nonetheless responded quickly: the shares climbed 1.7% that day, at one point running up as much as 2.3%.

The timing raised eyebrows. Almost simultaneously, T-Mobile US announced that CFO Peter Osvaldik will step down in February 2027, with Jessica Uhl lined up to succeed him. Reuters drew a link between the personnel change and the Elliott reports. Taken together, the picture forming for shareholders is one of an investor intent on shaping how the company deploys capital rather than championing a multi-billion-dollar US merger.

Buybacks Carry On Regardless

Even as the Elliott headline stoked speculation, Deutsche Telekom kept its existing share repurchase program running without pause. Between August 31 and September 4, the group bought back 2,897,200 of its own shares. Since the program began on August 10, repurchases had reached 8,072,565 shares as of September 4.

That steady buying hands the activist an indirect argument. A company already retiring stock on a large scale has demonstrated it can prioritize distributions through capital policy alone — no additional US merger required.

Trading has reflected the mixed backdrop with a calm but mildly positive tone. The stock changed hands at EUR 28.23 on Friday, up 1.0% from the previous close of EUR 27.96. Over seven days, however, it is down 0.7%, while year-to-date it has gained 1.6%. The shares remain 18% below their 52-week high of EUR 34.35, set at the end of February.

A Split Verdict From the Sell Side

Two major houses had already staked out divergent targets shortly before news of the Elliott stake surfaced. Barclays kept its "overweight" rating with a EUR 35 target, while JPMorgan reaffirmed "overweight" but with a far lower objective of EUR 27.50. The gap illustrates how differently the two firms gauge the stock's potential — even when they agree on the recommendation.

Less weight is warranted for an automated call from Zacks Research, which downgraded the shares from "strong buy" to "hold" on Monday — a quantitative model signal with no apparent fundamental trigger.

Satellite Voice Call Points to a 2026 Launch

Away from the activist chatter, the group's technology arm was busy demonstrating where its connectivity business is heading. At the Telekom Satellite Day 2026, the Deutsche Telekom IoT unit, satellite operator Iridium and Toyota showed for the first time that a voice message can be transmitted over Iridium's NTN Direct network, which relies on low-flying satellites in the L-band.

The trial used a Toyota test vehicle fitted with a Nordic nRF9151 board and an IoT global SIM from Deutsche Telekom. The voice message was compressed with a Fraunhofer codec requiring less than one kilobit per second, then sent over the NB-IoT mobile standard and Iridium's satellite service. The partners thereby demonstrated that bandwidth-frugal voice communication can work via satellite — a building block for regions lacking terrestrial mobile coverage.

According to the companies, commercial launch of the service is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026, initially for Deutsche Telekom IoT business customers in Europe. That would extend the Bonn subsidiary's offering for connected vehicles and industrial applications with a satellite component that functions beyond conventional network coverage.

Market watchers greeted the demonstration with restraint. The test is seen as an incremental step rather than a near-term share price catalyst for the companies involved — a view consistent with how the stock has actually traded. The shares closed at EUR 27.96 on Thursday, a gain of 0.4%, but remain roughly 19% below their February 52-week high of EUR 34.35.

For investors, the satellite cooperation carries mainly strategic weight: it shows how Deutsche Telekom is broadening its IoT business technologically, without new revenue figures becoming visible in the short term. The real-world test still lies ahead with the commercial start announced for the fourth quarter. Only then is it likely to become clear how strong business-customer demand for satellite-based voice communication actually proves to be.

Strategic Crossroads Ahead

Beyond the Elliott debate, the group is moving on other fronts. Reuters reported early-stage talks on a European satellite-to-mobile consortium with Orange, Vodafone and Telefónica for an EU spectrum stake, though Bloomberg noted no final decision has been made. In Greece, meanwhile, the rebranding of COSMOTE TELEKOM to the Telekom name is under way, with the full campaign kicking off on September 8.

What matters most for shareholders in the coming weeks is how management answers Elliott's pressure — and whether the US merger plan can genuinely be consigned to the files. That response will shape the share price far more than any short-term analyst adjustment.