The realisation that its attraction to German business users was in decline has prompted the merger of Telefónica's fixed and O2's mobile operations in the country. The new company, unimaginatively labelled Telefónica O2 Germany, will bring together the sales and marketing operations targeted at German businesses--as well as the landline wholesale business--making it a second important mainstay in addition to the O2 consumer business.
This move follows a strategy already implemented by competitors such as Deutsche Telecom and Vodafone Germany that have built business customer units focused on offering a full range of bundled telecom services to German businesses.
Johannes Pruchnow, the former CEO of Telefónica Deutschland, and now MD of the new business division, said the restructuring would create significant new opportunities. "The most important aspect is our modern IP-based landline and wireless infrastructure. But, thanks to the integration of the two telecoms businesses, we will now be able to advance with the merger of these two infrastructures even more quickly than before." The Verl location will be expanded to become a competence centre for landline and IP."
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