Virgin Media’s Lutz Schüler will lead the new company which is due to be brought about by the merger of the UK operations of Liberty Global and Telefonica.
Assuming the Competitions and Markets Authority’s investigation into the merger rules there is no impact on competition in several retail and wholesale telecommunication markets in the UK, Schüler will take charge of the new company.
Patricia Cobain, chief financial officer of Telefonica UK, will retain that role while Mike Fries, chief executive of Liberty Global, was named as chair of the combined business for a two-year term last year.
Schüler has previously held senior positions at both Liberty Global and Telefonica in Germany.
Liberty Global ad Telefonica first announced plans to merge their UK business in a deal worth £24 billion in May of last year.
The combination of Virgin Media and O2 is expected to create a nationwide integrated communications provider with over 46 million video, broadband and mobile subscribers and £11 billion of revenue.
The two companies also said they believe the merger will enable them to challenge in the B2B space, in areas such as Cloud, big data, Internet of Things and cybersecurity services.
It’s thought the CMA’s investigation into the deal will likely end sometime in May.
