back to article BT to gobble EE for £12.5bn – BTEE phone home

BT is in talks to acquire EE for £12.5bn. BT had been eying up taking O2 from Telefonica. The former national telco said on Monday that it expects "significant synergies" from absorbing EE, mainly through cuts "network and IT rationalisation, back-office consolidation and savings on procurement, marketing and sales costs". BT …

  1. returnmyjedi

    Good/phew. Whilst they're far from perfect, as an o2 customer I was worried that BT would drag their above average customer service down to their appalling level. At least with EE it couldn't get any worse.

    1. dogged

      Well said. EE lie about their coverage, BT lie about their broadband speeds. It's a match made in marketing.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      what everyone is lying about is "privacy" in GSM communications!

      According to this interesting page, in Norwegian but with nice videos, suspicious Aftenposten journalists took fifty thousand readings using a specially modified GSM mobile phone.

      They were shocked to discover around one hundred and twenty-two incidents/anomalies consistent with many highly active, even dual-band, completely genuinely FAKE GSM base-stations in Norway!

      People targeted included PM, MoD, Central Bank, parliament, Embassies, major businesses... potentially anyone with a GSM in Oslo; a spokesman from PST (Norway's MI5), Arne Christian Haugstøyl, came out with "we warn persons ... against discussing sensitive matters on the mobile phone"

      I'd say that all of the no-doubt similarly illegal GSM systems in UK will be off for a few days, whilst this storm blows-over, unless the Daily-Mail picks up on it. Aftenposten couldn't get any comment from their BT equivalent. Is it a good time to invest in EE? - well maybe if A5/3 gets a roll-out in UK, (that would be a stop-gap solution to have a partially secure algo whilst GSM is buried and the spectrum refarmed for 900MHz LTE)

      English translation (without the really nice pics & videos) is at http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/Secret-surveillance-of-Norways-leaders-detected-7825278.html

      1. 's water music
        Joke

        Re: what everyone is lying about is "privacy" in GSM communications!

        Well, if snooping on pols leads to better coverage and the filling in of not-spots by spook deployed fake base stations then I am all for it as long as they deal with call hand-off gracefully

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "...At least with EE it couldn't get any worse."

      @returnmyjedi - I suspect you are about to be proved horribly wrong. Barrels will cope with a surprising amount of scraping, especially if their bottom surfaces are encrusted with faeces.

    4. Dave K

      Agreed. I despise BT ever since being ripped off by them a few years back and I really was not looking forward to having to jump network from O2 if they were bought by BT (seeing as they're one of the only networks that provides a signal where I live). To all EE customers, you have my sympathy...

      1. breakfast Silver badge

        Everything Everywhere except signal in my phone

        Thanks, but after hearing about this I won't be staying an EE customer for long. I would hope that this will be enough to push everyone else on the network out of their phone inertia too- the only reason I can imagine that anybody stays. I have been a BT customer and I will not be one again.

        1. chr0m4t1c

          Re: Everything Everywhere except signal in my phone

          >Thanks, but after hearing about this I won't be staying an EE customer for long

          Are you not going to even wait to see if the deal gets done?

          That said, I'm an EE customer and I do not wish to do business with BT either. Personally, I'll probably stay with EE until they try to sell me BT line.

          The real problem for me is that we're gradually reaching a point where I don't want to do business with any of the companies offering services that I need because of the buy-ups, so I may end up just having to lump it.

  2. cs94njw

    Ummm... wuh?

    *shudder* A near monopoly broadband/landlind provider in the UK, will own a major mobile provider.

    Grrr I hate BT.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      " A near monopoly broadband/landlind provider in the UK, will own a major mobile provider."

      If OFCOM were competent they'd require the new BT to demerge Openreach. Shareholders would still own both operations, so no loss to them, and they could elect to keep or sell either BT's service business or the Openreach monopoly according to their investment objectives.

      Unfortunately we all know OFCOM couldn't find their own arse with both hands. FFS, they don't even require BT to have separate statutory accounts for Openreach, which is virtually unheard of in regulating asset based businesses.

      So expect this deal to be rubber stamped.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        " keep or sell either BT's service business or the Openreach monopoly "

        How is Openreach a monopoly when Virgin's network reaches more than half of UK homes?

      2. bonkers

        BT: Fucking wankers the lot of them, I'm off...

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Same situation as in many countries. LLU is the important thing.

    3. Annihilator
      Facepalm

      " A near monopoly broadband/landlind provider in the UK, will own a major mobile provider."

      Ah, takes me back to the late 80's when all you could see round here were BT landlines and subsequently BT Cellnet masts...

      Remember when we owned that company? But then the powers-that-be decided that privatising would give us cheaper prices, and subsequently opened the industry up to multiple players when they realised that wasn't working.

      Good to see that we're gradually regressing back to being spanked by one big company (it'll be cheaper cos of the synergies I'm told). That we used to own.

      1. Dr Stephen Jones

        @annihilator

        "Remember when we owned that company?"

        Yes I do. It took six months to install a line and you had a choice of two phones.

        BT's pension liability is a black hole today. I am very glad that this is not my problem as a taxpayer.

        1. scrubber

          Re: @annihilator

          Plus the £22.5bn raised from 3G auctions that wouldn't have happened had we had a single state owned operator. And the many billions gained from the sale of BT. And the corporation tax from its profits.

          1. Annihilator
            Holmes

            Re: @annihilator

            "Plus the £22.5bn raised from 3G auctions that wouldn't have happened had we had a single state owned operator. And the many billions gained from the sale of BT. And the corporation tax from its profits."

            The money "raised" from the 3G auctions though - who do you think paid for it (and the effort required to run the sale)? You - the consumer. All you've done is be taxed in a massively inefficient way, allowing a portion of that to be carved off to private equity funds.

            As for the corporation tax on its profits - you realise that we'd still have that plus the actual profits?

            It's like the people who were very excited to purchase shares in the Royal Mail's IPO and get very excited that they now own part of it. They always owned it, but are somehow pleased to be able to pay for something they already owned.

            I'm not a complete communist though, I'm well aware that the broadband market we have now has driven faster speeds and that BT would probably still be doing 512Kbps broadband if it weren't for LLU and competition, but let's not get excited about us going back to single companies and expecting that we'll benefit from it.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: BT would probably still be doing 512Kbps broadband

              "BT would probably still be doing 512Kbps broadband if it weren't for LLU and competition"

              BTwholesale and BT Retail and indeed BT Openreach might well still be in the dark ages, but if you look into who's behind the last few sets of standards that allow repurposing of telephone wires intended for voice decades ago, to now permit speeds unimaginable even fifteen years ago, among the various contributors are folk from BT R+D (as was) in Martlesham. It has another name now, the name is irrelevant, but what they do there is not so irrelevant.

              The rest of your post makes perfect sense.

            2. scrubber

              Re: @annihilator

              BT was subsidised.

              The 3g auction was an increase in fixed costs, it had literally zero impact on customer prices.

        2. TheOtherHobbes

          Re: @annihilator

          >Yes I do. It took six months to install a line and you had a choice of two phones.

          If you live in some parts of the UK it literally takes six years to get broadband working, and you have a choice of two speeds, one of which is regularly zero.

          1. 080

            Re: @annihilator

            If you fancy a good fleecing try France Telecom, €23/mnth for less then 1Mbps plus €3/mnth for the router and mobile prices which will make your eyes water and it all comes from the same provider but with two separate bills.

        3. strum

          Re: @annihilator

          >Yes I do. It took six months to install a line

          On analog systems. Digital systems (nothing to do with the ownership of the company) enabled swifter installations.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Remember when we owned that company? But then the powers-that-be decided that privatising would give us cheaper prices, and subsequently opened the industry up to multiple players when they realised that wasn't working."

        I think you've introduced an extra step there. Competition was introduced alongside privatisation - first with Mercury (owned by C&W, also a privatised former goverment monopoly) and then other operators applied for licences. Later, the license requirements were eased and now anyone can set up a telco.

        TPTB were right about one thing though - prices are far cheaper than they were and amongst the lowest in Europe. That's one of the reasons for takeovers and mergers and all that stuff - owners are trying to get out because low prices means there's not much profit in UK telecoms - notice that there's not so much eagerness to sell mobile operators elsewhere in Europe.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Maybe that'll fix EE's appalling...

    Maybe that'll fix EE's appalling mobile coverage and customer service then?

    No?

    You're probably right.

    Are EE's landline phone and broadband service still white labelled BTwholesale offerings?

    1. Terry 14

      Re: Maybe that'll fix EE's appalling...

      "Are EE's landline phone and broadband service still white labelled BT wholesale offerings?"

      Yes, the service is provided by BT and billed by Orange (EE).

  4. Tom 7

    Ah shit

    another new sim to inform my friend about!

    1. Andy Landy

      Re: Ah shit

      shouldn't be too much of a bother if you only have the one friend :)

  5. Phil Endecott

    I don't want "synergies", I want several companies who compete with each other to have the best products and best customer service.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "I don't want "synergies","

      Then you're in luck, because there won't be any, and the actual impact is that BT have to recover more costs.

      All those deal fees, legal costs, restructuring costs, and a particularly big and fat acquisition premium are going to create a huge slug of "goodwill" on the balance sheet that needs to be amortised away. The only way that will happen will be either for BT to take lower profits on EE than the current owners (which isn't going to happen), or for BT to increase the average revenue per user and the average margin per user to EE customers. That's what happened every time the UK cable companies got traded.

      The BT fat cats can dress it up all they want, but there's a harsh reality to this sort of deal: Customer's get screwed while The City enjoy big bonuses.

    2. Annihilator

      "I want several companies who compete with each other to have the best products and best customer service"

      That's not gone particularly well so far though, has it? Looks like we're giving the ol' monopoly approach another swing.

  6. Zog_but_not_the_first
    FAIL

    Markets! Competition! Prices driven down! The customer wins!

    Monopoly.

    The capitalist wet dream.

    1. Arnold Lieberman

      Re: Markets! Competition! Prices driven down! The customer wins!

      Of course socialists just looooove private companies competing for customers. All that duplication of effort etc. etc.

      Did you hear, production is up in the tractor factory this year comrade!

      1. TheOtherHobbes

        Re: Markets! Competition! Prices driven down! The customer wins!

        Are BT buying that too? It would be a good match for their business practices.

      2. Zog_but_not_the_first

        Re: Markets! Competition! Prices driven down! The customer wins!

        Yes, production is indeed up but only according to the "official statistics".

        Actually, I think market competition is a good thing, but that isn't what we have (apart from small businesses). Cutting costs, increasing efficiency and being competitive are all-too-often rallying cries used to worsen the conditions of employees while corporations seek monopoly or near-monopoly status through acquisition etc.

        There was an interesting talk on TED a while back where someone had used network analysis techniques to investigate patterns of ownership based on published company reports. I think the conclusion was that half a dozen bodies own just about everything.

  7. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Holmes

    You guys have it all wrong.

    The next step will be for Deutche Telkom to take over BT. Now that they have a 12% stake, what is to stop them from growing that to more than 29.9%?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: You guys have it all wrong.

      Excellent. If DT take over BT, maybe we can have Paul Potts doing our telco adverts too.

      For the avoidance of doubt, imo that would be an improvement.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIeXW56Eg1k

      1. Tristram Shandy

        Re: You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIeXW56Eg1

        I preferred Deep Purple's version.......

    2. theblackhand

      Re: You guys have it all wrong.

      DT taking over BT? That sounds more like an OFCOM fantasy - beat up the nasty foreign company to make them give rural customers broadband versus rolling over and letting BT tickle there belly as OFCOM playfully try to swat them away.

    3. Derek Kingscote

      DT to take over BT

      Can't see HMG allowing that. All GCHQ/home office/government/Army-Navy Air Force traffic delivered over a network owned by a foreign power; I don't think so!

      Will GCHQ/Home Office/HMG be able to perform anonymous surveillance if DT are in control?

      However with TTIP, who knows who will own what.

      1. Stuart Castle Silver badge

        Re: DT to take over BT

        Can't see HMG allowing that. All GCHQ/home office/government/Army-Navy Air Force traffic delivered over a network owned by a foreign power; I don't think so!"

        They don't seem that bothered that BT is using a lot of hardware designed and built by Huawei, A company suspected of spying for the Chinese.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: DT to take over BT

          "Can't see HMG allowing that. All GCHQ/home office/government/Army-Navy Air Force traffic delivered over a network owned by a foreign power; I don't think so!"

          They don't seem that bothered that BT is using a lot of hardware designed and built by Huawei, A company suspected of spying for the Chinese."

          I doubt that sensitive government or military traffic rides the public networks unless there's some form of hiding in plain sight going on.

  8. fridaynightsmoke

    Too big?

    I'm normally Captain Libertarian about such things, but isn't this the sort of thing there's a Competition Commission to look at?

    The sniff test says anticompetitive.

    1. BA

      Re: Too big?

      Nope, the sniff test says it will still be a big pile of poo.

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Too big?

      What's anti-competitive about it?

    3. localzuk Silver badge

      Re: Too big?

      Only problem I can see is the back-haul part, but it'd basically be the same situation as OpenReach/Wholesale have with the retail side of BT now.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Childcatcher

    I hate to think what the children will be like off this union, ugly spoilt thieving bastards probably.

  10. Lazlo Woodbine

    Oh shit

    Was going to move to EE from O2 & Talk Talk next year, now I need to find another network that is reliable in the Lancs / Cumbria border

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh shit

      Yeah. I was getting ready to switch from Sky to EE. Anyone but BT! Previously I was going to go back to Be, being unaware that Sky had bought them.

      I believe that will mean there will be only Sky and BT serving this area now. I.e Sky, BT, PlusNet, EE. I don't recall seeing Be as an ISP for here last time I looked, though it had been for several years. This is rapidly becoming an appalling situation.

      Yes, just checked. There's also TalkTalk. What a fucking joke.

      1. Philippe

        Re: Oh shit

        Actually Sky hasn't bought Be. O2 kept it when they sold their customer broadband network to Sky. (Actually they sold the customer as the network was BTs).

        Since then, O2 has been heavily investing in boosting this network in the background before relaunching a fibre broadband service.

        It will be business only at first but eventually, we never know.

  11. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Go

    Of course!

    Return of the GPO!

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Of course!

      GPO, A New Hope

      The GPO Strikes Back

      The GPO Menace

      Attack of the GPO

      Revenge of the GPO

  12. Steveir

    Phew...sort of

    I was with O2 when they were bt cellnet, they were ok but much better as O2.

    The only problem now is that 3 have said they would go after the network that bt didn't go for. I had the misfortune to have a 3 phone a few years back and my experience wasnt good...hopefully they'll forget about it

    1. david bates

      Re: Phew...sort of

      I went from O2 to 3 via (shudder) GiffGaff.

      3 have been cheaper and much, much better.

      1. Thought About IT

        Re: Phew...sort of

        What's up with GiffGaff? I can only get a decent signal from O2 where I live, and GiffGaff are part of O2, so I was thinking of switching to them.

        1. wolfetone Silver badge

          Re: Phew...sort of

          I had an O2 phone years ago and only cancelled it to get a new BlackBerry on Vodafone (which were cheaper). That was the only reason, I always thought O2 were good.

          Roll on to now, I'm on EE after having a 2 year awful marriage to 3. EE, for the most part, aren't too bad. I haven't had an issue with them. Saying that I don't think much of their online offering, I can never log in to my account to check my usage.

          If BT do end up buying EE (which I think they will), then I'd have been more likely to go to O2. But if 3 are going to buy O2, then my next choice of operator will be limited - which I'm sure Ofcom is supposed to prevent?

        2. david bates

          Re: Phew...sort of

          O2s crappy network, with GiffGaffs crappy systems glued on too so double the chance of outages as far as I could see.

          Plus crowdsourced technical support. Cheap but not very cheerful.

        3. Robert E A Harvey

          Re: Phew...sort of

          It's coverage that affects me.

          I have tried 3 and Giffgaff in my ipad, and have O2 on my company phone and Virgin on my private one.

          from O2/GiffGaff I get no coverage at all on the hills between Grantham and Stamford, and close to nothing in the middle of Spalding. Driving from Lincolnshire to Cheshire I got coverage only in Stoke on Trent, and scrappily in Crewe. I could not even make a phone call on the Derby ring road.

          Meanwhile the 3 and Virgin systems were at 5 bars for all of those examples.

  13. Aqua Marina

    Short version

    So the short version of this article.

    BT, which used to own Cellnet, was considering re-buying Cellnet (now branded as O2)

    Hutchinson, which used to own Orange, was considering around re-buying Orange (now branded as EE)

    BT changed their minds and are now buying Orange.

    I suppose the shorter version of that is.

    Hutchison Sell Orange, BT buy it.

  14. Marc 13
    WTF?

    BT - the new largest player in 3 markets

    So BT will be:

    34% of Fixed line Internet (next biggest: Virgin 205)

    37+% of Fixed line telecoms (Plus EE's share) (next largest: Virgin 12%)

    33% of Mobile comms (EE's share) (Next largest VF/O2 @ 26% each)

    So BT is now dominant in all three markets... and we know how well they play with others when in dominance!

    media.ofcom.org.uk

    s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-CF126_vodblo_G_20140403100734.jpg

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Blue Sky Ahead

    So when do we hear about the Murdoch empire sniffing around O2 so that Sky can buy it's own Quad Play offering...?

    1. Ted Treen
      Megaphone

      Re: Blue Sky Ahead

      Well I can't imagine many Politicos, Celebs etc., buying a mobe from a Murdoch company...

  16. Tezfair
    Facepalm

    no wonder our BT bills keep going up

    I have been looking to jump from EE business as the service (signal) has been getting worse over the last year or so, whereas 3 has been getting better (son on 3 PAYG). I may hold off incase there's any perks, otherwise i'm off to 3.

    For the avoidance of argument, O2 and vodaphone signals don't come here, I have to walk up the road to get their signals.

  17. kororas
    Thumb Down

    ffs

    I'm leaving EE if this happens.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sky surely HAVE to buy O2 now?

    And they have companies in places like Germany, so those subsidiaries may actually come in useful!

    Though as an ExBT minion, I did expect them to complete the reversal and rebuy O2.

  19. flearider

    but what about the broadband side of things ?? this means bt will own nearly everything ..again ??

    and yes I can see myself leaving ee so broadband we will have virgin bt and ?? because bt own pulsenet already ..

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh no ! Poor OFCOM

    Another headache for them to deal with !

    As if they don't have enough on their busy plate to rubber stamp another BT misdemeanour.

    Wankers all !

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Duh for Sky

    Sky UK has just moved it's corporate mobile phone service from O2 to EE... Duh!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If BT hadn't taken so many pension" holidays" then perhaps they would still have Cellnet, which was a good service. I was with Cellnet which then became O2 & I have to say the service has been good but the cracks are beginning to show now. I had an email from them to say they were updating their network, didn't take a lot of notice because I just use my phone for calls. I wonder if BT will close one or more of the Indian call centres. Used to be with Orange BB, horrendous cost me a fortune in phone calls. Had to report something lost last week, spoke to Michelle, well that's what she said her name was, took me twice as long but Murdoch won't mind because the telephone is with Sky because I'm sorry to say O2 sold us down the river. Why is it that we the customers are always on the losing end?

    1. ARGO

      Pension payment holidays

      >If BT hadn't taken so many pension" holidays" then perhaps they would still have Cellnet

      Or perhaps not. At that time the company stopping contributions was a legal requirement if the pension fund was more than a certain percentage in surplus. No corporation tax revenue on pension contributions you see...

      For all I know that law still stands, but it's kind of irrelevant given the state of final salary funds these days.

      Of course that state is partly due to the pension holidays, but more of it is down to a certain Mr G Brown's cunning plan to abolish dividend tax relief - again, a great idea to gather more tax revenue today at the expense of tomorrow's pension funds.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Pension payment holidays

        The man generally in charge of the CBI-inspired pension holidays was Adair Turner.

        Look him up. After leaving Chase Manhattan and then McKinsey he was Director of the CBI for a while, and it was during his reign that pension holidays for company pension schemes became fashionable (regardless of whether the fund had a 'surplus' or not).

        In 2002, Turner chaired the UK government's inquiry into pensions.

        Where has Mr Turner been more recently?

        In 2008, he was appointed Chairman of the Financial Services Authority, a role which included 'regulating' the pensions industry (amongst other things).

        Would you buy a used car from this man?

  23. Christopher Lane
    Facepalm

    Lois...get my thinking grenades...

    Soooo....Liberty Global, who now own Virgin Media, are thinking of buying O2...whilst BT are thinking of buying EE....who Virgin Mobile use for their network.

    Did I get that right or did another Oozlum Bird just disappear off the planet?

  24. Alex Bailey
    Flame

    Well that's just great news!

    I hate dealing with BT... the fact that wherever I buy from then provide the backbone to my landline and fibre broadband service because I live in an area where there are no alternatives (unless I want to add a layer of complexity when things break). The fact BT insist on charging me extra because I refuse to pay by direct debit when they won't give me a chance to see my bill before they take my money if I do.

    I switched my mobile service from Vodafone to EE in the spring to improve my 3G coverage and get a decent 4G service; I've always avoided O2 because of their past connections with BT and 3 just weren't cutting it in my area.

    Now I have the displeasure that I will be giving more of my hard earned to BT for at least the remainder of my 2 year contract. After that?

    Do not pass go. Do not collect £200.

    1. FlossyThePig

      Re: Well that's just great news!

      "The fact BT insist on charging me extra because I refuse to pay by direct debit when they won't give me a chance to see my bill before they take my money if I do."

      If you pay by DD the vendor must tell you in advance what they are going to take. I get emails from a number of companies telling me a few days in advance what they are going to charge.

      http://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/Pages/DirectDebitGuarantee.aspx

      1. Dave Lawton

        Re: Well that's just great news!

        That doesn't actually stop them from actually taking the amount up to a week before it is due (or before the date they have just notified you of).

        Happened to me several times.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "significant synergies"

    in effective aligning of the workforce potential of both companies.

    Read: you'd better work twice as hard 'cause we just fired your pals. And the pals of their pals. Merry Christmas!

  26. securecomment

    Any way you look at this, it's not good. BT's dead hand back round the neck of competitive markets. They'll be showing football next...

  27. Andy Davies

    What goes around comes around...

    My first ever phone was a nokia - http://www.shinyshiny.tv/nokia%20brick.jpg

    it is still in my car as my emergency phone

    it contains my first ever sim - from BT

    which became O2

    which became EE

    which became - BT

    1. dogged

      How Thy Aren't Related

      Actually BT Cellnet became mmO2 became O2.

      Hutchison created Orange and sold it to France Telecom who then joined up with Deutsche Telekom (owners of T Mobile) to make EE.

      So basically, your SIM won't work.

  28. MJI Silver badge

    Why not their own company?

    Why are they not rebuying BT Cellnet?

  29. ukgnome

    And meanwhile in the Norfolk Broads we still cannot get a phone signal.

    *strictly speaking not true, but I am so fed up of climbing the 30ft scaffolding tower to text my mum.

  30. cantankerous swineherd

    BT buy ee to strangle rollout of 4g in rural areas. just when people thought they were going to escape the dead hand of BT.

  31. Syntax Error

    Nationalised

    Seems EE have been nationalised.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    BT's big plan? use customer's WIFI for extra coverage.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Those numbers don't add up?

    EE made £1,588m for the 12 months to 30 June 2014. The deal would add an extra £6bn to BT's annual turnover of £18bn.

    Shirley, £1588m is £1.5bn? How did it turn into 6?

  34. hairydog

    Monopolistic Move Unchallenged?

    Sounds like another attempt at establishing a telecoms monopoly. Isn't there supposed to be a body that regulates monopolies in the UK?

  35. letooth
    Facepalm

    Synergy

    So the UK company that is the worst to deal with merges with the UK company that is second worst to deal with. I see the synergy here - the ability to act with total incompetence and p**s off more people in less time than ever before will undoubtedly be magnified exponentially.

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