Deutsche Telekom announced it officially closed its acquisition of GTS Central Europe on 30 May, and has now begun consolidating the GTS Group into its own operations.
The full operational integration is expected to be completed in the Czech Republic, Poland and the International Business Unit of Deutsche Telekom by October, while legal unity is planned for 1 January 2015. Danny Bottoms, GTS CEO prior to the acquisition, will continue to head GTS going forward under the amalgamated business.
Claudia Nemat, board member for Europe and Technology at Deutsche Telekom said. "The GTS acquisition supports the implementation of our strategy to strengthen and further develop our B2B local and pan-European business including international wholesale customers."
Nemat added that Deutsche Telekom intends to "preserve GTS' know-how and combine its business approach with the core strengths of Deutsche Telekom."
Danny Bottoms added that the completion of the acqusition means the company can "now start with the integration process at full speed. The combination of GTS with the resources of Deutsche Telekom will enable us to provide customers with more services that simplify their business."
The takeover bid was announced in November 2013 and was approved by the EU without conditions on 15 April 2014.
GTS, which is a major telecommunication infrastructure service provider in Central and Eastern Europe, owning and operating fibre optic networks throughout the region, achieved a turnover of €337 million ($458 million) in 2013.
For more:
- see this Deutsche Telekom press release
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