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France Telecom and Denmark’s TDC are set to merge their Swiss operations — Orange Switzerland and Sunrise, respectively — in a move that would create a powerful rival to the market leader – Swisscom. France Telecom said it will pay 1.5 billion EUR to TDC to become a 75% shareholder in the combined entity, while TDC will hold the remaining 25%.
The new firm will have approximately 3.4 million mobile and 1.1 million fixed and broadband customers, accounting for a 38% share of the Swiss mobile market and 13% of the fixed broadband connections. At the same time, the merger is expected to generate synergies to the tune of 2.1 billion EUR.
According to France Telecom’s Gervais Pellissier: “The planned merger of Sunrise and Orange Switzerland marks a new significant step in the long-term investment by France Telecom-Orange in Switzerland. Following the UK joint venture between Orange and T-Mobile, France Telecom completes another major in-market consolidation, consistent with its M&A policy.”
At the moment, Swisscom dominates the Swiss mobile market with an estimated 62% marketshare (5.5 million connections) in Q3 2009. Sunrise holds the second position with 1.9 million users (a 21% market share), while Orange is third with 1.6 million users (18%). More details about the merger are available from this file (PDF).
[Via: GSMA]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
