United Kingdom approves the merger between O2 and Virgin Media

The union between O2 y Virgin Media It is already a reality. The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cleared the joint venture.

Liberty Global y Telefónica They celebrated the news in a joint statement. The regulatory conditions have been met in accordance with the terms original and the transaction is now expected to close on June 1, 2021. The CMA provisionally cleared the transaction last month, with no resources required, after the European Commission referred it to the CMA.

The union between O2 y Virgin Media will provide UK users with a unified platform that seeks to position itself as the “strongest” fixed and mobile competitor in the market. To do so, it will rely on the expansion of the red giga-ready Virgin Media and mobile deployment 5G of O2.

Favorable projections

The joint venture is expected to produce substantial synergies valued at £6.2 billion based on net present value after integration costs. Likewise, it plans to create an integrated communications provider at the national level with £11 billion in revenue.

In this new company, Lutz Pupils will serve as CEO, while Patricia Try it She will be CFO once the transaction is completed. Schüler is currently CEO of Virgin Media and Cobian, CFO of O2.

José María Álvarez-Pallete, president of Telefónica; and Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global, believe that this company will mark a before and after in the United Kingdom: "This is a decisive moment in the history of telecommunications in the United Kingdom as we are now authorized to present a real alternative where it has not existed before, while investing in fiber and 5G, something that the United Kingdom needs to prosper. We are grateful to the CMA for carrying out a thorough and efficient review. Lutz and Patricia are ready to take the reins and launch a national connectivity champion that “It will bring more people together, drive more businesses back to growth, and galvanize more communities for the common good.”