TMCnet News
New CEO for Deutsche Telekom (Obermann soll Telekom-Chef werden)(Financial Times Deutschland Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Kai-Uwe Ricke, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, the German telecommunications group, is due to step down a year early and be replaced by Rene Obermann, until now head of the mobile division T-Mobile. Faith in Ricke has been lost after poor business development, with the former monopoly being less competitive due to high staff costs and inflexible bureaucracy. Particularly due to strong US business, half of the group's profits have been attributed to T-Mobile under Obermann's management. Further staff cuts are expected to be unavoidable. Deutsche Telekom currently employs 244,000 members of staff worldwide but intends to cut 32,000 of these by 2008. It is claimed that every month more than 150,000 customers are lost in the T-Com fixed network division. In April, US investment company Blackstone acquired a 4.5 per cent stake in the company from German minister of finance Peer Steinbruck. Blackstone has been pressing for swift share price correction and a stronger capital market orientation. Original article by Thomas Hillenbrand, Peter Ehrlich, and Birgit Marschall Abstracted from Financial Times Deutschland Copyright 2006 The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved. |