M2 to cut staff in post-acquisition restructure

Telecommunications company M2 has announced that it will restructure the company, affecting around 100 positions, following the acquisitions of Dodo and Eftel this year.

The close to AU$250 million acquisition of Dodo and Eftel was completed in May, with M2 picking up 400,000 customers from Dodo in the process, bringing M2's customer base to a total of 1.4 million post-paid services.

As part of the takeover, M2's staff numbers jumped from 956 to 3,131 employees, including 1,900 based in the Philippines.

Following a review, the company announced that around 100 roles within the merged business across administration, customer service, and sales have now been deemed redundant, and the company would now look for alternatives for those employees before offering them a redundancy package.

M2 CEO Geoff Horth said that staff members affected would also be offered support in addition to the full entitlements.

"We take this decision and the impact on our team very seriously," Horth said in a statement.

"This was a carefully considered and difficult decision. We place a high value on our team, so today we are committed to spending time with affected team members, and we will be working over the course of this week to explore all possible avenues for redeployment."

In August, M2 reported a net profit of AU$43.8 million, up 33 percent on the previous financial year, on the back of the acquisition of Dodo and Eftel.