{"id":26558,"date":"2021-04-07T08:33:38","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T07:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=26558"},"modified":"2021-04-07T08:53:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T07:53:18","slug":"merged-virgin-media-and-o2-uk-to-appoint-lutz-schuler-as-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/04\/merged-virgin-media-and-o2-uk-to-appoint-lutz-schuler-as-ceo.html","title":{"rendered":"Merged Virgin Media and O2 UK to Appoint Lutz Schuler as CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The existing Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of broadband ISP and TV operator Virgin Media<\/a> UK, Lutz Schuler, has today been named as the overall CEO for the combined company that will exist once the proposed \u00a331bn merger (50-50 joint venture) with mobile operator O2<\/a> (Telefonica UK) completes in the near future.<\/p>\n

On top of that Patricia Cobian, O2<\/a>’s existing Chief Financial Officer (CFO), has also been named as CFO for the joint venture.<\/p>\n

At present, we’re still awaiting the outcome of the Competition and Markets Authority<\/a>‘s (CMA) ongoing phase 2 investigation into the merger, which has raised some competition concerns but nothing that looks unsurmountable (here<\/a>). In theory, there shouldn’t be too many obstacles to the deal since both operators’ largely focus on different parts of the UK telecoms market and a prior merger between EE<\/a> and BT<\/a> sailed through.<\/p>\n

Assuming all goes well then the combined business has already proposed to invest a further \u00a310bn<\/strong> into the UK over the next 5 years (here<\/a>). The money would be used to help acceleration the deployment of 5G<\/a> mobile and to expand their gigabit-capable home broadband network (via DOCSIS<\/a> 3.1) to reach an extra 1 million premises “within 12 months of the merger closing<\/em>” (total of 16 million).<\/p>\n