The shareholders of Drillisch have voted to change the German telecoms company’s name to 1&1 Drillisch, following the acquisition of 1&1 Telecommunication – the mobile and fixed network unit of United Internet – in September last year. ‘Recent months have seen our merger of 1&1 Telecommunication with Drillisch, creating a powerful provider of the full range of telecommunications services,’ commented Ralph Dommermuth, CEO of the new 1&1 Drillisch, adding: ‘By combining the two names into the future brand of our parent company, we want to demonstrate to everyone, both inside and outside of the company, that the two enterprises are now one unit.’ He added that the brands of the firm’s products are not affected by the renaming and will continue to operate as before under the same brands.
As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, in May 2017 United Internet and Drillisch announced a business combination agreement which stipulated the step-by-step integration of 1&1 Telecommunication into Drillisch via two capital increases. The transaction, which was completed in September 2017, is aimed at creating a strong fourth player in the German telecoms market, alongside the three major full-service providers Telekom Deutschland, Vodafone Germany and Telefonica Deutschland.