UK - joint venture of DTAG and France Telecoms will cut 1,200 jobs following the merger of their mobile networks

[bloomberg] France Telecom SA and Deutsche Telekom AG’s U.K. joint venture Everything Everywhere will cut about 1,200 jobs following the merger which created Britain’s largest wireless operator.

The venture will eliminate positions in back-office and management roles to avoid duplication, it said today in a statement. About 7.5 percent of the total workforce will be cut as the company targets more than 3.5 billion pounds ($5.5 billion) in cost savings.

Everything Everywhere was formed after the French and German phone companies agreed last September to merge their mobile-phone businesses in the U.K. to create the country’s largest operator and overtake Telefonica SA’s O2 unit. The Orange and T-Mobile brands remain separate.

“We need to ensure we are operating with maximum efficiency, effectively serving our two brands, while removing any unnecessary duplication from the business,” Chief Executive Officer Tom Alexander said in today’s statement.

The 50-50 venture “will continuously grow” its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to achieve an Ebitda margin of more than 25 percent by 2014, the unit said this week.

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