(Recasts with confirmation by companies, adds background)
April 6 (Reuters) - Virgin Media's boss, Lutz Schuler, will
be appointed chief executive of the British broadband company's
proposed joint venture with the Telefonica SA's UK
mobile network O2, the companies said in a joint statement on
Tuesday.
O2's Patricia Cobian will be appointed chief financial
officer of the combined company, the statement added.
Virgin Media, owned by Liberty Global Plc, is
awaiting approval from British regulator Competition and Markets
Authority (CMA) for its 31 billion-pound ($42.86 billion) tie-up
with O2.
The CMA has a statutory deadline of late May for making a
judgment on the deal, according to a Sky News report.
Last year, CMA referred the merger to an in-depth
competition investigation, given the potential impact of the
deal on consumers.
CMA said both Virgin and O2 provided wholesale services to
other mobile network operators in the UK, including wholesale
mobile services and mobile backhaul.
It raised concerns about the merged company's incentive to
raise prices or reduce the quality of these wholesale services.
Liberty Global and Telefonica agreed in May last year to
merge their British businesses to create a powerhouse in mobile
and broadband to take on market leader BT Group Plc.
($1 = 0.7233 pound)
(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru
Editing by Matthew Lewis)