O2 sold to Telefonica

BuffyBot

Story here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4391754.stm

Don't think it will mean any major changes seem as O2 and Telefonica's existing markets don't overlap.

whiskeyman

Dont expect prices to come down to those seen in Spain either.
Telefonica will be rubbing their hands with glee now they have access to the cash cow markets.

jrey1981

Thats true - I hope they are not going to raise call prices.

I think the main benefits Telefonica will realise will be consolidation of group purchasing of handsets and equipment - gives them more bargaining power with the likes of Nokia, sim card manufacturers, etc.

As whiskeyman says, it gives them huge monthly cash income, a larger base of subscribers to whom they can market new products and services which they will have got at lower cost, therefore extracting more value and profit from that subscriber base.

Cork

I surpose we'll have to fork our for new Cork team shirts.

I surpose it will be rebranded.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Well according to the article linked it won't be.

The Corinthian

Seems like a popular day to announce OpCo sales... Vodafone has just sold their Swedish operator to Norway's Telenor.

whiskeyman

Cork wrote:

I surpose we'll have to fork our for new Cork team shirts.

I surpose it will be rebranded.

Highly unlikely.
The O2 brand is huge and worth millions to them, as it's a main asset of the company.
Why throw it away and spend millions more on a rebrand?

It's not quite like the Eircell & Vodafone or Esat Digicell & O2 buyouts... although many argued that Vodafone wasted a very successfully built brand in its home market.

BuffyBot

As far as I understand, they plan to keep the O2 brand, and keep Telefonica for their other markets.

icdg

Not Telefonica, Movistar - they have a seperate brand for their mobile operations.

Yes they do plan to keep them seperate. But in the long run I wonder how long Telefonica shareholders will counternance them running two head offices and two seperate mobile phone subsidaries. Eventually cost-cutting will force them to merge O2 and Movistar, and then there may be a rebranding.

darraghrogan

Its a shame - I quite like the O2 brand - 'tis "cool"...

Oh dear - I have affection for a commercial notion....

Darragh

monkeyfudge

darraghrogan wrote:

Its a shame - I quite like the O2 brand - 'tis "cool"...

Oh dear - I have affection for a commercial notion....

Darragh

Oh I hate it... the adverts are so bland and depressing with all those bubbles and horrible music.

rogue-entity

monkeyfudge wrote:

Oh I hate it... the adverts are so bland and depressing with all those bubbles and horrible music.

Well no one has seen any of the MoviStar/Telefonica brands unless you watch a lot of Spanish TV, so who is to say which one is better, and I really like the O2 brand, the bubbles ads and especialy the music.

When the first O2 ad was launched, I downloaded the mp3 for Leftfields Release the Pressure, which was the music used on the ads. I wanted to download the music from the other ads but I could not find if for free online so I just gave up. Actualy the tune that I want the most was the music used on there O2 Active ads with all the guys in hoods.
Anyone know what music it was?

Solair

Telefonica's brand would sound totally stupid in both German and English. "MoviStar"

There's a possibility they could rebrand all their mobile operations as O2. It would make sense, it's a very very well branded company and it's a very "international" brand.

France Telecom did this when they purchased UK mobile operator Orange. They rebranded all of their mobile operations under the Orange brand, including their French network - Itineris.

Eircom are supposedly undecided as to wheather to drop the name Meteor. It's brand isn't really worth all that much as the uptake's quite small.
They could go all out with "eircom mobile" or with "eircom meteor"
The suggestion is that they'll call the company eircom mobile and "meteor" will be their prepay service.

The Troll

Interesting Telefonica just bought Vodafone in Spain as well.

jetsonx

my experience of Telefonica has not been good ...have you ever been to a
Spanish holiday resort - hundreds of Telefonica call boxes all over the place - but only 1or2 that actually work!!! I hope that they run mobiles phone networks better

darraghrogan

Solair wrote:

Telefonica's brand would sound totally stupid in both German and English. "MoviStar"

There's a possibility they could rebrand all their mobile operations as O2. It would make sense, it's a very very well branded company and it's a very "international" brand.

France Telecom did this when they purchased UK mobile operator Orange. They rebranded all of their mobile operations under the Orange brand, including their French network - Itineris.

Eircom are supposedly undecided as to wheather to drop the name Meteor. It's brand isn't really worth all that much as the uptake's quite small.
They could go all out with "eircom mobile" or with "eircom meteor"
The suggestion is that they'll call the company eircom mobile and "meteor" will be their prepay service.

meteors branding is quite inconsistent - it seems to focus on negativity too much for my liking - the two snipey looking girls texting and arguing over the better means of communication...who'd want to text them anyhow?!

bring on the girl from no frontiers i say!

Darragh

darraghrogan

rogue-entity wrote:

Well no one has seen any of the MoviStar/Telefonica brands unless you watch a lot of Spanish TV, so who is to say which one is better, and I really like the O2 brand, the bubbles ads and especialy the music.

When the first O2 ad was launched, I downloaded the mp3 for Leftfields Release the Pressure, which was the music used on the ads. I wanted to download the music from the other ads but I could not find if for free online so I just gave up. Actualy the tune that I want the most was the music used on there O2 Active ads with all the guys in hoods.
Anyone know what music it was?

dj shadow - blood on the motorway (not to be confused with the great mashin on the motorway) and fatboy slim long way from home

Darragh

1huge1

The Troll wrote:

Interesting Telefonica just bought Vodafone in Spain as well.

they did?
wasnt it only like 2yrs ago that vodafone bought out airtel in spain so now theres only moviestar and amena
there market share makes eircoms look small

The Corinthian

1huge1 wrote:

they did

They didn't, AFAIK - and I probably should.

Solair

I see absolutely no mention of that Telefonica take over of Vodafone Espana are you sure about your facts there? It would seem EXTREMELY unlikely that Vodafone would sell an asset like that and it would create massive regulatory problems in Spain for the largest mobile operator to take over the second largest.

No mention of it on Telefonica's website and no mention of on Vodafone's corporate website, in fact they're blabbing on about various new initiatives from Vodafone ES.

jrey1981

Yep I didnt think this was true either...it would have been in the business pages - and I havent seen it in the Irish Times, the Indy or the Mail, or anywhere on the net

rogue-entity

darraghrogan wrote:

dj shadow - blood on the motorway (not to be confused with the great mashin on the motorway) and fatboy slim long way from home

Darragh

Blood on the Motorway was the "2 minutes" ad with the neon clock ticking down, I first saw it in the cinema.

Long way from home was the second last one that O2 used, just before they brought out the "revolves around you" ad with the planets.

The O2 active ad preceeded these and had completly different music, although it is possable that they used a different part of the "blood on the motorway" track.

Thanks though, I will keep searching and perhaps I will find it eventualy.