Orange & T-Mobile Merger Finalised

Author Gordon Kelly
Published 9th Nov 2009
Orange & T-Mobile Merger Finalised
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It's happening folks...

Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom late last week confirmed they have signed the final agreement to combine their UK operations, T-Mobile and Orange, into a 50:50 joint venture company. Due diligence has been completed and the terms of the transaction are now binding with formal completion expected in the first half of 2010 (video from the day of the original announcement).


"This joint venture is based on the full commitment of Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom to a long term partnership," said Deutsche Telekom CFO Timotheus Höttges. "The negotiations were conducted in a fair way on both sides and I am certain that this spirit of professionalism and partnership will shape the future of our joint venture. It will set new standards as the number one in the UK mobile market."

'Standards' is a word rival networks would debate, but what looks certain is we will have a new giant upon our hands with 28.4m customers and 37 per cent UK market share. Current leaders Vodafone and O2 have 24.7 per cent and 27.7 per cent respectively with 3 backing up the rear at eight per cent. Of course the deal can still be stopped should the Competition Commission decide to kick up a fuss, but given T-Mobile's May declaration that it wanted to merge or sell I suspect little will stand in its way.

How will O2 and Vodafone respond? My guess is by fighting over 3...

Link:
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comment DavidDB said on 9th November 2009

Any hope of a DEAF TARIFF for the 9 million deaf and hard of hearing in the UK who are sick to the teeth of paying out for "talk-time" every month they don't want has fur... more

comment bobsta said on 9th November 2009

These two companies are a perfect match - both suffer from poor coverage and dreadful customer service having being a customer of both networks.

comment Gordon said on 9th November 2009

@bobsta - not according to Ofcom... http://www.trustedreviews.com/networking/news/2009/07/10/Ofcom-Slams-O2-3G-Coverage/p1

comment lifethroughalens said on 10th November 2009

Does anyone at TR's know any info about when this techno mash up will actually happen? (as in my first post) Or is this at the 'sometime in the future' phase?

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