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Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa, which operates Three (brand) mobile networks, is reportedly offering 1.4 billion EUR for Orange Austria to merge it with its operations in the country (3 Austria). According to local press reports, a deal could go through as soon as next month, though none of the parties involved commented.
At the moment, Orange has 2.2 million connections and Three – 1.3 million. The new company would stand a chance to compete with the two leading carriers in the country, Telekom Austria’s A1 (5.2 million connections) and T-Mobile (3.9 million).
If everything goes as planned, Hutchison will sell excess base stations, spectrum as well as Orange’s prepaid “Yesss” brand to A1.
Contrary to popular belief, France Telecom isn’t the majority owner of Orange Austria – it holds 35% of the company while the rest is owned by private-equity firm Mid Europa Partners. Austria is one of several European markets where France Telecom is reviewing the possible disposal of assets seen as “non-core.”
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]
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.
