EU Lawlords Put O2 and Three Merger Back on the Cards

The European Court of Justice has thrown out an earlier European Commission antitrust ruling that barred mobile giants O2 and Three from merging, freeing parent companies Hutchison and Telefonica to have another shot at synergising at boardroom level should they remain pumped for that sort of thing.

The landscape has changed a bit since the EU blocked the planned £10bn deal in 2016, though, as O2 is now joining up with Virgin Media. So any new attempt to merge Three with O2 would be on different terms, and may trigger more thrilling years of endless legal action and appeals. Mind you, it'd be worth it for the naming potential of the new entity alone. 302? 023? Or perhaps add them up and make Five?

A statement from Three owner Hutchison said the EU had "...a misconceived default view that European telecoms markets are better served by having a minimum of four Mobile Network Operators in each EU Member State," with this ruling opening up the potential for lots of thrilling new network consolidation across the continent. [Hutchison via Techradar]