After the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) gave its approval a couple of weeks ago the rest was really just a formality, but the sale of EE to BT has been officially rubber-stamped today. In total the mammoth takeover deal is worth £12.5bn.
If you’re a BT or EE user, don’t expect anything to change today – in fact you might not notice any differences for quite some time. Eventually though, it’s a good bet that the two firms are going to consolidate their various offerings across mobile, television and the web and bring out a range of all-in-one deals.
There’s another huge deal in the offing: Three owner Hutchison Whampoa wants to acquire O2, but that particular deal is still waiting on regulatory approval. If it does go through, that would mean big changes at three of the four main mobile operators in the UK in a short space of time.
EE has already made some tentative moves into television and of course BT has been battling Sky in the race for sporting rights. The company bosses will be hoping the acquisition deal makes them better placed to take on their rivals across all of the various platforms they’re operating in.
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