Yahoo Finance BT merges arms to target business in latest shake-up
THE shake-up of BT under chief executive Philip Jansen continued today with the merger of two of its largest units.
The Global and Enterprise arms will become one organisation called BT Business with the aim of better serving corporate customers.
The EE mobile phone brand is targeted at retail customers.
Late in November BT negotiated the end of strikes by workers by paying staff a £1500 pay rise.
Earlier this week BT cut the charges on its Openreach arm to clients such as Sky and TalkTalk as it seeks new customers in the battle with Virgin Media and CityFibre.
Today’s deal is seen as part of the drive by Jansen to modernise a business that in the past has been seen as sluggish and bureaucratic.
BT Business will be led by Bas Burger, the present CEO of BT Global. The new arm will have revenue of £8.5 billion a year. No job cuts were mentioned but plainly cannot be ruled out.
Rob Shuter, the CEO of BT Enterprise, will leave BT in a few months.
Cost savings of £100 million a year are predicted by 2025. BT wants to slash costs by £3 billion a year overall and believes it now has the support of unions to get there.
Jansen said: “By combining the two units, BT Business will bring the Group’s combined assets, products, capabilities and brand to the service of all of our 1.2m business customers who will benefit from faster innovation and delivery. Bas is an excellent leader and I’m confident he will build on the plans already underway and drive the combined business back to growth.”
BT shares were flat today at 114p.
