Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2009/03/26/vodafone_thus/
Thus finds a home for mobile division
Vodafone pulls the strings
Posted in Networks, 26th March 2009 13:22 GMT
The mobile division of C&W-owned Thus has been palmed off to Genisis Communications, to prevent the customers falling into the hands of Cable & Wireless or being subsumed into Vodafone.
Thus' mobile division incorporated a Vodafone reseller called Intercell, but when Thus got bought by Cable & Wireless last year Vodafone threatened to exercise its right to grab Intercell's customers given the change of ownership.
That threat has now been averted, by transferring all of Intercell's assets, including the customers, to Genesis Communications Ltd.
Neither company is saying much about the deal, but we understand that employees working in the Intercell part of Thus will find themselves working for Genesis at the end of March.
THUS have told its staff that the transferred staff will continue under their existing T/Cs, and the transfer would not have any material impact on the new THUS.
However, it is understood that some transferred employees have been warned that their jobs "are at risk".
Confusingly Thus also provides mobile connectivity outside the Intercell/Vodafone arrangement, and those customers will be entirely unaffected by this new arrangement - though Thus admits there aren't very many of them.
This kind of shuffling is only to be expected when a company like Thus is bought; given the cost of acquiring a mobile phone customer there would be a real risk of competitors buying up MVNOs in order to steal their customers if change-of-ownership clauses didn't exist. ®