JANUARY 11, 2006

BMW does a deal with O2

The BMW Sauber F1 Team has signed a deal with the mobile phone company O2, the deal is with the German subsidiary of the British firm O2 plc. Interestingly, O2 has just been taken over by the Spanish telecoms group Telefonica in a $31.3bn deal which creates the world's fifth largest telecoms company by market value and enabling Telefonica to get back into the German market which it abandoned back in 2002. The deal means that Telefonica will gain an additional 25m customers. The deal received European Commission clearance just hours before the BMW deal was announced, suggesting that the announcement was waiting for the clearance.

It will be interesting to see whether the O2 deal will have any effect on the ongoing sponsorship of the Renault F1 team by Telefonica or whether the new deal will be in addition to that contract.