Joining forces with Telefónica

O2 and Telefónica bring together two strong, successful, growth-orientated companies, creating a strong pan-European/global telecoms player. The combined entity is second largest global wireless operator outside of China, in terms of active subscribers, with more than 245 million customers. In addition, the combined group is also the world's fourth most valuable telecom operator with a market capitalisation of approaching $150 billion.

As part of an enlarged company, O2 will build on its track record of operational delivery, the strength of its brand, and the momentum it has established in all its markets.

We are continuing to integrate our businesses:

Governance: joined-up working practices across the whole Telefónica group.

Values and integrity: common ethical standards for the group.

Reputation: a group-wide system to help manage our reputation.

Reporting: group-wide data reporting practices.

Roaming: economical international calling rates for our customers.

Procurement: efficiencies in our purchasing activity for network equipment and devices.

Advocacy: a single voice in industry bodies and promoting sustainability initiatives.

Working together: Sharing information and experiences.

Telefónica‘s vision:
We want to enhance people’s lives and the performance of businesses, as well as the progress of the communities where we operate, by delivering innovative services based on information and communication technologies.

At O2 we are:

• A stand-alone brand with freedom to shape our own success.
• Committed to putting our customers at the heart of our actions.
• A business that applies standards of integrity, with a governance structure to sustain them.
• Active in the communities in which we operate.
• Determined to give employees a stimulating, rewarding, and balanced workplace, with reasons to be proud to work for O2.

With Telefónica we are:

• The third largest telecommunications company in the world, in terms of customer numbers.
• Offering customers a full range of mobile, fixed-line, broadband, and digital TV services.
• Helping the company and local economies to grow, investing €588 million in research and development.
• Working together to find the best ways to do things, and making sure our actions are responsible and ethical by applying the same business principles across the world.

O2 customers have already begun to feel the benefits of Telefónica’s £17.7 billion acquisition of O2.

It has allowed us to do things we could not have done before, such as introducing the ‘My Europe’ international tariff in the UK, Germany, Ireland and the Czech Republic and launching broadband services in Germany.

Our values and commitments closely match, and we are making sure that we work in a seamless way too. We have started to introduce common standards and management processes. We are sharing practices on key issues, such as: diversity and inclusion, supply chain ethics, child protection and digital inclusion. In 2007,
we implemented a group-wide set of business principles.