Looks like the guy that started Virginmobile is leading the bid which makes sense as its debt funded bid, meaning they will be around £8billion in debt from day 1. Maybe they will be renamed Virginmobile? Although being a private equity firm I expect they think they will re-sell for proft after the 4G auctions.
Quote:
The owner of Boots and Pets at Home is in early-stage talks over an £8 billion takeover of Orange and T-Mobile group Everything Everywhere.
Private equity house KKR is in detailed discussions with Everything’s parent companies, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom, in the hope of winning approval for its debt-backed bid, the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph reported.
Virgin Mobile founder Tom Alexander and former Vodafone chief executive Arun Sarin are understood to be leading KKR’s negotiations with Everything, which operates the mobile phones of 28 million in the UK. There is no guarantee that a deal will be secured.
Everything was formed in 2010 by merging Orange and T-Mobile, the British assets of the two European telecoms giants, delivering £3.5 billion of cost savings to its owners.
France Telecom’s finance director Gervais Pellissier last week told reporters the company would consider floating a stake in Everything.
Everything recently unveiled a £50 million investment plan in a new development academy which will train up to 12,000 staff, ensuring stores and call centres have experts dedicated to specific devices and their operating systems.
The company is also refreshing and modernising its high-street store estate. It has already announced it will start selling both T-Mobile and Orange products across all of its stores.
Everything is spending more than £1.5 billion over the next three years in bringing faster and more reliable coverage to its customers amid the boom in smartphones
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