The procurement JV between Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom-Orange is set to start operations after securing approval from anti-trust authorities. BUYIN will start business operations on Monday 17 October as a Brussels-based procurement JV between the companies. The company has operational units in France and Germany and is headed by Volker Pyrtek, former Chief Procurement Officer at Deutsche Telekom. The parent companies have combined their procurement activities in the areas of terminal devices, mobile communications networks, and in significant portions of their fixed-network equipment and service platforms, into the 50/50 JV. They also plan to launch pilot projects to explore other areas for inclusion in the JV at a later date, including IT infrastructure and other IT areas. The inclusion of additional fixed-network components will be looked at by the German Federal Cartel Office. The JV is expected to generate an annual run-rate of procurement savings of EUR 1.3 billion after three years of implementation. The worldwide savings for Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom-Orange three years after the start of operations are targeted at above EUR 400 million per year and below EUR 900 million per year respectively.
