Sonera and Telia agree $17bn merger

NEWS Sonera and Telia have merged to create a Scandinavian telco giant worth about $17bn. A deal between the Finnish and Swedish national telcos had been close in recent years but negotiations stalled on price. The combined company will be 64 per cent owned by Telia shareholders, the largest of which is the Swedish government. The new group will employ 34,000 staff and have in excess of 7.5 million land lines and eight million mobile customers. Telia came close to merging with Norway's Telenor in 1999 but talks broke down after large differences between the companies' bosses and national politicians emerged. Today's deal, rumours of which only emerged again this week, still has to face EC competition authority scrutiny.