Three becomes one as Vodafone buys out merger partner

Vodafone has paid £4.3 billion ($5.78 billion) for the remaining 49 percent of VodafoneThree, taking full ownership of the UK's largest mobile operator. The telecoms giant announced that it planned to buy the stake held by Three's former parent, CK Hutchison Group Telecom Holdings, in May. The acquisition comes just over a year after Vodafone UK and Three UK completed their merger following conditional approval from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The merger reduced the UK market to three mobile network operators: VodafoneThree, BT/EE, and Virgin Media O2 (VMO2). Vodafone claims full ownership will help it move faster and capture the "significant benefits" of an £11 billion ($14.7 billion) network investment plan and its...

Read the full article at the source.