Deutsche Telekom announced on 30 April plans to merge its fixed and mobile divisions in Germany into one business. CEO Rene Obermann will present the basic elements of the restructuring at the operator's shareholders' meeting in Cologne on 30 April. Subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, T-Mobile International will first be merged into Deutsche Telekom, making T-Mobile Deutschland a direct subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, according to TelecomPaper.
Following this, the two units T-Home and T-Mobile Deutschland will be combined into one company, which will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. The three service companies (Deutsche Telekom Kundenservice, Deutsche Telekom Technischer Service and Deutsche Telekom Netzproduktion) and retail unit Telekom Shop will then become wholly-owned subsidiaries of the new company controlling German operations. Further details of the restructuring are being developed under the One Company project, headed by board member Thomas Dannenfeldt, and an extraordinary shareholders meeting will be cailed to approve the plan. The German operator said the new structure will enhance ~s growing offering of converged services, lead to more corss-selling of services and ensure customers receive consistent support across all types of services. The new structure will also help reduce costs , such as through consolidation of IT and customer care systems. Deutsche Telekom said it had already discussed the plans with employee representatives and no new staff reductions are planned.
Some changes in management were also announced. Berlemann will take over responsibility for sales at THome from Philipp Humm as of 1 May. From the same date, Friedrich FuB will be responsible for Technical Service, and from July, Bruno Jacobfeuerborn will head up Technology. At T-Mobile Germany, Christian P. lIIek will take over Marketing from 1 May, in addition to his existing tasks at T-Home. On 1 July, Thomas Dannenfeldt and Bruno Jacobfeuerborn will come on board as managing director of finance and managing director of technology respectively. Berlemann will continue to be responsible for customer service; the supervisory board of T-Mobile Deutschland has also been requested to appoint Berlemann to this body in the role of head of sales as Humm's successor. Five managers are moving to new positions outside of the TMobile Deutschland management. Jiri Drvojancansky and Philipp Humm (Chief Regional Officer Europe) are moving to the Europe department under Hamid Akhavan as of 1 May, while Raphael Kuebler takes over as head of group controlling in the finance department. Guenther Oltendorfer (Technical Director for Mobile Communications Technology in Europe) and Steffen Roehn (Chief Information Officer), who will be responsible for IT across the entire group, are moving to Operations headed by Akhavan.
