BT's acquisition of EE provisionally approved

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally approved BT’s £12.5billion acquisition of EE.

The ‘mega-merger’ has been heavily contested in recent months by competitors such as Vodafone and TalkTalk.

However, the CMA has stated that the coming together of the two giants “is not expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition in any market in the UK.” This includes the supply of retail mobile, wholesale mobile, mobile backhaul, wholesale broadband and retail fixed broadband services.

Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive of BT, says: “We’re pleased that the CMA has provisionally approved BT’s acquisition of EE. The combined BT and EE will be good for the UK, providing investment and ensuring consumers and businesses can benefit from further innovation in a highly competitive market.”

Whenever a company undergoes any structural reorganisation it is inevitably going to result in a large amount of people management. One man who has experience of doing just this within BT is Kevin Brady, HR Director of BT Technology, Services & Operations and BT Wholesale.

Two years ago Brady took the lead on the bringing together of all of the global operations within the research and design elements. This involved managing over 20,000 employees through the joining of BT Operate and BT Innovate – two separate divisions with two very different cultures. The result: BT Technology, Services & Operations.

Speaking to HR Grapevine, he says this was achieved in two key ways. The first: “Putting together a management team that represented both organisations, making sure we took the best talent from both.

“Then, we worked hard at creating the right culture at the top table and throughout the organisation. In the first year we looked to really invest a lot of time as a management team to focus on behaviours, workshopping the culture that we wanted and then making sure the leaders were aligned and really behind that.”

To read more see September’s cover feature ‘Brought Together’ here.