Europe’s largest carrier recently reported net income of 853m euros ($980.9m) for its first quarter, and Ricke told the company’s annual meeting that the company will do everything it can to at least post a black zero despite the difficult economic environment.
Ricke’s main task is to reduce the 56.3bn euro ($65.6bn) debt pile run up by the previous management, and his aim is to reduce it to 52bn euros ($60.6bn) by the end of the year.
He ruled out an early IPO of its T-Mobile wireless operation, and even though he said it is not off the table, it is not on the agenda either. He also ruled out the prospect of merging its wireless operations in the US with another carrier, and said that consolidation in the US mobile industry is not imminent. T-MobileUSA currently has 10.8 million subscribers and needs between 14 million and 15 million to achieve critical mass. Ricke said he is confident this can be done in the next two years.
Source: Computerwire
