{"id":60550,"date":"2022-10-03T14:25:03","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T14:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/10\/03\/vodafone-and-three-in-merger-talks\/"},"modified":"2022-10-03T14:25:03","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T14:25:03","slug":"vodafone-and-three-in-merger-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/10\/03\/vodafone-and-three-in-merger-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Vodafone and Three in merger talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div >\n<p ><b >Vodafone is in talks with Three about merging their UK operations.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >This would mean the third and fourth largest mobile networks respectively to combine to create a business of 27 million customers, larger than current market leaders BT, EE and Virgin Media O2.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The companies say it would accelerate the rollout of 5G and rural broadband.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Each deal would be reviewed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The two companies are reportedly hoping to reach an agreement by the end of the year. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Vodafone said it would own 51% and Hutchison &#8211; which operates Three &#8211; 49% under the deal under discussion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;By bringing our businesses together, Vodafone UK and Three UK will have the scale needed to accelerate the rollout of full 5G in the UK and extend broadband connectivity to rural communities and small businesses,&#8221; Vodafone said in an update to shareholders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;Conditions for thriving competition in the market must be encouraged or the UK risks losing the chance to become a 5G leader,&#8221; it added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Mobile industry analyst Ben Wood told the BBC that the possible connection between Vodafone and Three is to be expected. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;It&#8217;s no surprise,&#8221; he said.  \u201cBoth companies have made no secret of their interest in consolidation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >\u201cThe main motivation for joining forces is size.  In telecommunications, the most successful companies tend to be the largest;  an increase would offer many synergies and cost-saving opportunities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >\u201cUnder the status quo, it&#8217;s hard to imagine either operator growing organically enough to come close to BT and Virgin Media O2 in terms of size in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Any transaction would need to be approved by regulators, who have previously opposed mergers that would reduce the number of networks in the UK. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >However, Vodafone has pointed to a recent report by communications regulator Ofcom that could suggest a new approach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >It turned out that both Vodafone and Three had achieved returns on capital employed in recent years that were lower than the cost of capital employed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >But James Robinson of communications market analysts Assembly said there were still hurdles for the combined company to overcome.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;A combination of Three and Vodafone would have a significant share of 5G,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;While the parties may view the consolidation as an opportunity to improve returns and unlock shareholder value, we anticipate that the CMA will seek to protect against the risk of rising consumer prices &#8211; particularly given the current cost of living crisis.&#8221; . <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >He suggested the merged company might need to make &#8220;legally binding concessions&#8221; to reassure regulators.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The Vodafone pairing with Three is just one possible connection in the UK. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >In recent months there has been speculation about further deals with Virgin Media O2, TalkTalk and Sky.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Ofcom said it had no firm position on future mobile consolidation. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;In our view, potential mergers in the telecoms markets must be assessed on a case-by-case basis, rather than on a conjectural view of the appropriate number of competitors,&#8221; says its latest report. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vodafone is in talks with Three about merging their UK operations. This would mean the third and fourth largest mobile networks respectively to combine to create a business of 27 million customers, larger than current market leaders BT, EE and Virgin Media O2. The companies say it would accelerate the rollout of 5G and rural [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.1 (Yoast SEO v18.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Vodafone and Three in merger talks - Tahrir News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/10\/03\/vodafone-and-three-in-merger-talks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vodafone and Three in merger talks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vodafone is in talks with Three about merging their UK operations. 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