EU overturns block on merger between O2 and Three

i_am_sy

The Register: EU General Court tears up ban on Three slurping O2. Good thing the latter's not set to merge with Virgin Media, eh?.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/28/three_o2_merger_block_annulled/

This change of tune means there can no longer be certainty that the UK will remain with four MNO's this opens the door for further mergers that could now result in the UK being reduced to three major networks, and also continue to suck up the HBB and TV providers into much larger companies, if Three plus O2 wasn't too big, and wouldn't harm competition in their eyes then there's not much that could.

It certainly seems likely that O2 and Virgin Media will merge without interference, at the very least.

dartgirl

i_am_sy Virgin Media Cant See It

figment_uk

i_am_sy

Does this pave the way for Three to muddy the waters for the VM/O2 merger?

shabazmoqsud

i_am_sy when virgin and o2 merge, then three merge with o2 does that mean customers in uk will only have

3 main network providers vodafone, three and ee

and several mvno sim providers.

farnis

i_am_sy

The EU, its just great isn’t it? Were supposed to have left but they’re still dictating to us and overturning major decisions. The EU 😪

i_am_sy

dartgirl Virgin Media Cant See It

I've no idea what you mean?

dartgirl

i_am_sy Virgin Are Not Going To OPEN Any Of There SHOPS Again, So I Cant See A Merger Going On

i_am_sy

figment_uk

They where prepared to stump up the cash to buy O2 outright, so I can see them being able to buy the whole O2/VM group of they wanted to or merge with the new company.

I don't think rebranding all three into one would cost more than rebranding two companies, and the the only extra overlap with this would be the small amount of extra mobile customers from Virgin mobile MVNO, which I doubt would affect things much.

I think it would be a better opportunity for CK than before buy being able to offer TV and HBB to compete fully with BTEE, and I do think Telefonica and VM are looking to sell or IPO.

So I don't think CK would make a counteroffer for O2 but I do think they could now be interested in the overall company.

davek89

The competition and mergers authority backed the EU court, so it's likely that a similar merger in future would be blocked by UK courts.

i_am_sy

dartgirl

The merger deal has been signed. And something you would want to do in a merger is close any unnecessary stores to save costs. Those stores are not really needed at all when you take into account the number of O2 stores there are, all of which can also sell Virgin Media packages alongside their mobile phone contracts.

i_am_sy

shabazmoqsud

If that happens then yes, though at the moment the only merger agreed is O2 and Virgin Media.

If CK Hutchinson (Three) wants to take over or merge it would have to start negotiating again as the previous deal was voided when the merger was blocked originally.

That could mean either making offering a to buy O2 that causes them to cancel the VM deal, or a offer to buy or merge with the new company.

techiebloke

Hutchison could move in to try to acquire the newly formed company,

i_am_sy

techiebloke

Exactly I think the small amount Virgin Mobile customers wouldn't make any difference overall when it comes to the EU and BT buying EE so merging mobile and broadband/TV went through fine, so I can't see anything that would now be able to block O2/VM merging or Three/O2 and no extra overlap overall that would be able to stop all of them becoming one.

And for CK Hutchinson this would surely be a better buy than O2 alone, and both Telefonica and John Malone are up for selling I believe.

davidvarley

If three does join with 02 and virgin might be better for three customers eg we might see 2g signal instead of just 3g and 4g signal that we have now so bad coverage areas were 3g and 4g struggling to get signal will get at least 2g reception for calls and texts only.
If three does do this things could get interesting.