Arcor

Mannesmann Arcor AG & Co. KG was formed in 1996 as a joint venture between Mannesmann, Deutsche Bank and DBKom, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, the national railway operator. After Mannesmann was acquired by Vodafone, the company was renamed Arcor AG & Co. KG.

On 19 May 2008, Vodafone acquired the minority shareholdings of Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Bank (18.17% and 8.18%, respectively) to gain full control of Arcor.

Censorship controversy

In September 2007, various computer magazines reported that Arcor was blocking access to a small number of pornography sites, such as YouPorn, for their domestic Internet users. Technology news website Heise Online reported that a competing Internet pornography business had advised Arcor that the blocked sites were illegal under German law, as they either had no or inadequate measures to verify the age of people accessing their content.