Telefónica and Liberty Global have confirmed that the CEO of Virgin Media, Lutz Schüler, will be the managing director of the planned joint venture between its subsidiaries in the R. United. The merger between O2 and Virgin Media is expected to materialize at the end of this year, subject to approval by the Royal Commissions and Markets Authority. Kingdom (CMA), creating a €XNUMX billion communications giant with forty million core debit, landline, TV and mobile subscribers. Schüler joined Virgin Media from the German cable company Liberty Unitymedia in XNUMX, first as operations manager and then as general manager from June XNUMX. He was also an operations manager for O2 in Germany between XNUMX and XNUMX throughout a twenty-seven year career in the industry. Patricia Cobian, a fifteen-year veteran at Telefónica R. Kingdom and who has been the financial director of O2 since XNUMX, will accept the same role in the company generally. "Lutz and Patricia are the right leaders to realize our ambition to create the UK's national connectivity winner," said Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty Global, and José Maria Alvarez-Pallete Lopez, CEO of Telefónica. “Together, they will form a strong, diverse and active team that will offer more options, more value and also world-class innovation to more than XNUMX million fixed and mobile customers and to the business and consumer market generally. “Lutz is a unique talent and a perfect addition to the newly merged company. He has extensive experience in both fixed and mobile services and has fabulous experience at Liberty and Telefónica as a driver of transformation and development. Together, Virgin Media and O2 will need to quickly capitalize on strategic opportunities in network expansion, digitization, convergence, 5G and video, all areas where Lutz has strong experience and clear vision. "I am honored and proud to be appointed CEO of this powerful combination of Virgin Media and O2, and delighted that we are one step closer to realizing our vision of creating a true connectivity winner on the R. Kingdom," added Schüler. By the time the deal closes, O2 CEO Mark Evans is leaving the company. Evans was appointed in XNUMX after the failed merger with Three and was pioneering a turnaround at the operator, disproving theories that a mobile-only player couldn't make headway in the R market. United. Schüler and Alvarez-Pallete Lopez paid tribute to Evans, recognizing his achievements after a period of insecurity. “Since its appointment in XNUMX, the company has established itself as the leading network of R. United in terms of size and user satisfaction and has registered 5 successive years of profit development”, stated the CEO of Telefónica. “The valuation increased by €XNUMX billion, which made this deal possible. He also played a definitive role in the Telefónica group and in our strategy. Mark will continue in his role until completion. Evans added: “I am proud to have served Telefónica, O2, their employees and customers, especially as CEO over the past 5 years, and have thoroughly enjoyed the journey. It has been both a personal and professional honor to have established O2 as the number one mobile network and the most attractive brand in the R. United. "The combination of O2's mobile infrastructure and Virgin Media's cable network would immediately create one of the largest telecommunications organizations in Europe. The consolidation would also result in savings of €XNUMX billion and give the scale and capacity to compete with BT and Vodafone on concurrent network services. Parent companies Liberty Global and Telefónica have pledged to create four thousand positions and one thousand apprenticeships if they receive regulatory approval and have pledged to increase the combined company's gigabit broadband footprint by one million auxiliary locations, increasing the number of total to sixteen million, in the twelve months following the merger.