Energis is now officially owned by Cable & Wireless (C&W) following the completion of the £600m acquisition today.

From Monday, Energis boss John Pluthero takes on a new role as executive director of the Cable & Wireless UK business.

While the deal means that C&W should be able to compete more effectively with BT, it will also have to restructure its business to take account of its new acquisition.

Integrating a company like Energis into its existing business will take time, especially since some 700 jobs have been identified for the chop between now and 2008.

At the same time, C&W must also keep more than an eye on its local loop unbundling (LLU) ISP Bulldog. This mutt has already been in trouble with regulator Ofcom and if C&W wants Bulldog to corner a sizeable chunk of the fast-growing LLU market, then it needs to keep the ISP on a tight lead. ®

Related stories

• Top bean counter to quit C&W (30 March 2006)
• Cheeky BT tries to poach 'displaced' C&W punters (9 March 2006)
• C&W backs Bulldog in restructuring (28 February 2006)
• C&W braces itself for 'year of hell' (27 February 2006)
• C&W to cull jobs in Ireland (20 February 2006)
• Bulldog faces uncertain future (6 February 2006)
• Bulldog to launch 20Mb broadband (1 February 2006)
• Cable & Wireless restructures and warns on profits (31 January 2006)
• $11.5bn bid for TDC (18 November 2005)
• Kingston Comms confirms bid approach (10 November 2005)
• C&W/Energis merger to be finalised shortly (8 November 2005)
• OFT OKs C&W's Energis buy (25 October 2005)
• C&W hammered as UK revenues fall (7 October 2005)
• C&W wins mating dance with Energis (16 August 2005)
• Energis and C&W refuse to deny merger talk (18 July 2005)
• C&W eyes Energis for 'takeover' (24 June 2005)