brendanz.net

If you haven’t heard, Vodafone and 3 have announced that they are to merge their Australian businesses together to form VHA (Vodafone Hutch Australia).

Interestingly enough, Telecom NZ actually own a 10% stake in 3’s Australian business – and in NZ, Vodafone are Telecom’s main rival.

I have inserted several comments from a Gizmodo article below, which were taken from a conference call that the companies hosted.

 

• The new merged company will have about 6 million customers, with annual revenue of about $4 Billion and about 26% market share in Australia
• Nothing will change for 3 customers. All contracts will remain. There will also be no change to the Crazy Johns brand.
• They refused to confirm whether the 3 brand would be completely phased out (considering the press release mentioned that they could maintain and use the brand until the transition and thereafter). That includes rebranding the 3 retail stores. In the end, they said that they need to work out the details of how the new joint venture will present itself to market. I wouldn’t be holding my breath for 3 to stick around though…
• The network arrangement between 3 and Telstra for 3 customers to roam on Next G later this year is still in place. I’m not sure how this will work – they were short on details – but apparently it will still go ahead.
• There will be redundancies, probably most from 3, but nothing has been decided yet.
• The whole thing isn’t set in stone. It still needs approval from shareholders (it’s been unanimously recommended by the boards of both companies), the ACCC and the Foreign Investment Review Board.