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In the UK, T-Mobile and Orange To Merge
EthanV2 sends in BBC coverage of the merger plans of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK. "T-Mobile and Orange plan to merge their UK businesses, creating a mobile phone giant with 28.4 million customers. If completed, a deal between Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile and Orange owner France Telecom would see a firm with sales of €9.4 B (£7.0 B, $13.4 B). It would be the UK's largest provider, overtaking Telefonica's O2, with about 37% of the mobile market. ... However, it is likely that competition authorities in the UK and EU will probe the deal."
Is there ever any news of mergers that hit Slashdot that aren't probed by the EU?
I don't recall the EU probing Slashdot's merger with Sourceforge ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Supposedly the new company would have around 37% of the market, which sounds daft given that there are only 60 million people in the UK. What this doesn't account for is the number of people who have both personal mobiles and mobiles supplied by their employers, eg for on-call purposes.
O2 have around 28% and Vodafone 25%, so there isn't that much in it. The issue the regulators seem to have is that the UK market will go from five major (O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3) players to four, and the merged Orange/T-Mobile would have a very large retail presence as well.
There are a couple of virtual providers out there as well. IIRC Virgin use the T-Mobile network, so this merger may have an impact on them.
Both the EU and UK (Competition Commission and/or Ofcom) regulators will be paying a great deal of attention to the merger, given the high barriers of entry to the market place (i.e. it's not really possible) and the low number of competitors.
In the UK, people annoyed by retardedly phrased Slashdot headlines.
I'm pretty sure that anything over 25% would legally be a monopoly in the UK (I know technically it's not a monopoly, but in a rare case of foresight the monopoplies and mergers laws took into account that 25%+ is enough to distort a market).
If you read the summary, it is about 37% of the market. There are more cellphones than people in the UK. Pretty much everyone has a cellphone, and a lot of people have more than one - eg work cellphone and personal cellphone.
This merger makes me very happy indeed. One of my kids is a lawyer specialising in telecoms competition issues. Recession? What recession?
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
However, it is likely that competition authorities in the UK and EU will probe the deal.
Is there ever any news of mergers that hit Slashdot that aren't probed by the EU?
It tends not to be news if two tiny companies merge to form another small company; that happens all the time without regulators getting involved, it's just not important enough to hit the/. front page.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
There aren't going to be any more spectrum auctions for a while. Three got in by bidding in the last auction, and they aren't exactly that new to the market. Hutchison Wampoa, the Chinese company that owns Three was the original owner of Orange.
and T-Mobile owns 93% of Era which is the third largest operator in Poland.