The 2008-09 Euroleague champ is Panathinaikos 73-71 CSKA in another stone thriller before a stunned crowd of 13,200 at o2 World in Berlin. A 23-point second-half lead by Panathinaikos dwindled to a single point several times as CSKA roared back, but Ramunas Siskauskas game-winning three try rimmed out. Vassilis Spanoulis was named MVP of the Final.
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Deutsche Telekom’s new structure, with a stronger regional and integrated focus, is taking shape: on Wednesday evening, the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Telekom AG approved the Board of Management’s proposals on the restructuring of operations in Germany.
Board of Management Chairman René Obermann will present the basic elements of this restructuring at today’s shareholders’ meeting in Cologne. Under these proposals, fixed and mobile communications business in Germany will be combined into just one business. “Mobile and fixed-network services will in the future be planned, built, managed, and marketed from a single mold,” said Obermann to shareholders.
Mr. Obermann had positive information to report to the shareholders’ meeting concerning the Group’s strategic goals, with business in Germany developing well and international business being reinforced as a result of investment in the Greek telecommunications group OTE. Success with mobile Internet services also confirms Group strategy: After the consistent restructuring towards network-centric ICT products, T-Systems is showing an upturn for the first time in years, said Mr. Obermann. “The headwinds are battering us, too,” he continued. “However, our company is relatively stable in the face of the worst economic downturn for 80 years.”
Through the restructuring of business in Germany, Deutsche Telekom is now continuing the course it established in fall 2006 under Mr. Obermann’s initiative, with integrated sales and customer service in Germany. The new structure should – subject to approval by the shareholders and financial authorities – be achieved in two stages:
- T-Mobile International AG is to be merged into Deutsche Telekom AG. T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH will thus become a direct subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG.
- Following this, the two units T-Home and T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH are to be combined into one company, which will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG.
An extraordinary shareholders’ meeting will be called this year in order to gain the approval of shareholders. The new structure will be subsequently and promptly implemented. The three service companies (Deutsche Telekom Kundenservice GmbH, Deutsche Telekom Technischer Service GmbH, and Deutsche Telekom Netzproduktion GmbH) and Telekom Shop Gesellschaft mbH will then become wholly-owned subsidiaries of the new company controlling German operations. Further details of this restructuring are being developed under the One Company project, headed by Thomas Dannenfeldt as the Board of Management Representative.
“Customers benefit under the new structure as their business will no longer be processed separately in the fixed and mobile areas, but they will in the future receive integrated offers and services from a single source,” emphasized Mr. Obermann. The fixed and mobile networks are converging – this can be seen, for instance, in laptops that use both networks for Internet access. The iPhone is another example, which accesses the Internet using the fixed network if WLAN is available. Deutsche Telekom intends to offer its customers in Germany even more integrated services that make connected life and work possible. “This requires efficient man-agement by one unit,” Deutsche Telekom’s CEO continued.
Standardized customer care means that the Group can tap additional reve-nue. For example, it will be easier to offer suitable mobile services to customers who have so far only used fixed-network products. Furthermore, the restructuring will enable Deutsche Telekom to save process and IT costs as, for example, the company will only require one IT system for cus-tomer management in the future.
Common principles were agreed with the employee representatives prior to the restructuring in order to safeguard cooperation in terms of the implementation. As a result, the bundling of fixed and mobile communication in Germany does not entail a new staff reduction program. Until the new structure is implemented, the organizational units T-Home, Sales & Service and T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH will continue with their committees in their current form.
The following changes to management have been made:
In the T-Home Board of Management, Thomas Berlemann is additionally taking over Sales from Philipp Humm as of May 1, 2009. From May 1, 2009, Friedrich Fuß will be responsible for Technical Service. From July 1, 2009, Bruno Jacobfeuerborn will head up Technology.
There will be a change in management at T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH, with Christian P. Illek taking over Marketing from May 1, 2009, in addition to his existing tasks at T-Home. On July 1, 2009, Thomas Dannenfeldt and Bruno Jacobfeuerborn will come on board as Managing Director of Finance and Managing Director of Technology respectively. Mr. Berlemann will continue to be responsible for Customer Service; the Supervisory Board of T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH has also been requested to appoint Mr. Berlemann to this body in the role of Head of Sales as Mr. Humm’s successor.
Five managers are moving to new positions outside of the T-Mobile Deutschland management. Jiri Drvojancansky and Philipp Humm (Chief Regional Officer Europe) are moving to the Europe department under Hamid Akhavan as of May 1, 2009. Effective May 1, 2009, Raphael Kübler takes over as Head of Group Controlling in the Finance department on Deutsche Telekom AG’s Board of Management headed by Timotheus Höttges. Günther Ottendorfer (Technical Director for Mobile Communications Technology in Europe) and Steffen Roehn
(Chief Information Officer), who will be responsible for IT across the entire Group, are moving to Operations headed by Hamid Akhavan.
Shareholders’ meeting to decide dividend
Alongside the Group’s strategic future structure, the shareholders’ meeting will be taking a closer look back at the 2008 financial year. Holders of Deutsche Telekom stock will also decide on the dividend to be paid out for the 2008 financial year. The Board of Management and the Supervisory Board are proposing a dividend payout of EUR 0.78 per share. The dividend shall be paid out promptly following the shareholders’ meeting, in all likelihood as of May 4, 2009.
The dividend on Deutsche Telekom shares is not subject to taxation, in other words no capital gains tax or solidarity surcharge is deducted from it. This is because dividends are paid out in full from the tax contribution ac-count (§ 27 KStG, Corporation Tax Act). The dividend is therefore entirely tax-free for all shareholders in Germany. Likewise, international share-holders are paid the dividend without the deduction of any German taxes. Whether or not the dividend is eligible for taxation outside Germany is determined by the regulations in the country of the shareholder’s residence.
This year, for the first time, the Deutsche Telekom shareholders’ meeting is a climate neutral event. The emissions totaling 677 metric tons of CO2 associated with it are being offset by investments in a climate protection project in Brazil.
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US carmaker Chrysler is to enter bankruptcy protection after failing to have its debts written off, the White House says.
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Monday, 4 May, 2009 – Friday, 8 May, 2009
Training: 4, 5, 8 May, 2009 Conference: 6-8 May, 2009
- The World’s Largest Communications Conference with More than 200 Speaker
- Over 440 Unique Companies are Registered from 75 Countries
- 40% of Attendees are Key Decision Makers
- 15 TM Forum Certified Training Courses Available
- 111 Companies Represented in the Expo and Forumville
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