Survival of the biggest; European telecoms.(Telefonica Co. to acquire O2 Communications (Ireland) Ltd.)(job cuts in Deutsche Telekom AG)

Economist (US), The, November, 2005

Telefonica's bid for Britain's O2 would create the largest phone company in the western world. That does not mean it is a good idea

THERE used to be a gentlemen's agreement between Europe's incumbent telecoms operators that they would not invade each other's home territory. But the old non-aggression pact has been eroding for some time. On October 31st it finally collapsed when Spain's Telefonica made a [pounds sterling]17.7 billion ($31.5 billion) all-cash offer for O2, one of the largest mobile-phone operators in both Britain and Germany. O2 is recommending the offer.

A union between Telefonica and O2 would create the world's second-largest phone company by number of customers (after China Mobile), with 170m mobile and fixed-line users in Europe and...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.