Orange joins race for T-Mobile

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 30 Jun 2009 at 16:06

Orange is going head-to-head with Vodafone in a takeover battle for T-Mobile UK, reports The Times.

T-Mobile UK, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom, has been under-performing for several years and was last week rumoured to be the focus of a buyout bid from Vodafone. Orange has now entered the negotiations, according to the newspaper.

Whichever company wins the bidding war will be paying upwards of £3 billion for the company.

If either firm can arrange a successful deal to incorporate T-Mobile, then they will instantly become the UK's largest mobile operator - usurping the current market leader, O2, which has 27% of the market.

Although there have been suggestions that any tie-up between two of the five UK operators could attract the attention of competition regulators, any potential deal is unlikely to be stopped.

The UK is the only European country to have five mobile networks, and in France, Italy and Spain the market has similarly dominant companies.