The European Commission has given an all-clear signal to T-Mobile and Orange to unite their UK networks. The merger was initially proposed in September 2009 following a period of speculation over the future of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile brand in the UK. However, this is now likely to close sometime during the spring.
Deputy CFO and CEO of Orange owner France Télécom, Gervais Pellissier said the way is now clear to become a strong operator and provide a high-quality network of services to their customers. He also said that they will pledge to generate a significant amount for their shareholders.
The merger of T-Mobile and Orange will be the largest in the UK by some margin, a point that attracted the interest of the Office of Fair Trading recently. However, the mobile experts have long maintained that the networks of other European countries control larger sections of the market compared to T-Mobile and Orange.
The board of the new corporation will be led by the representatives from both firms, with France Télécom’s Gervais Pellissier and Deutsche Telekom CFO Tim Höttges, holding the post of non-executive chairman on a revolving basis. Also the management team will be lead by T-Mobile UK CEO Richard Moat as COO and Orange UK CEO Tom Alexander as chief executive.