BT in need of boss with the Midas touch as Jansen confirms departure  

BT is on the hunt for a chief executive as speculation mounts over a potential takeover bid from a German rival.

The telecom giant’s boss Philip Jansen will leave in the next 12 months after a turbulent four and half years at the helm.

The firm is considering ‘all appropriate candidates’ and expects to share an update over the summer, chairman Adam Crozier said. 

BT’s consumer chief Marc Allera and mobile firm EE’s former chief Olaf Swantee are tipped to be among the front-runners. 

Confirmation of Jansen’s departure comes after The Mail on Sunday revealed the 56-year-old was ‘desperate to leave’ the FTSE 100 company.

A source claimed Jansen believes he has done all he can at the company and to shift its share price. Since he took over at BT in February 2019, the firm’s share price has fallen 46 per cent.

Jansen said: ‘There’s a lot more to do and I am fully committed to driving the business forward until I hand over to my successor’.

The shake-up comes amid renewed talk of a potential takeover bid from Deutsche Telekom, its second-largest shareholder. 

The German telecommunications company, which has built up a 12 per cent stake, is said to be plotting a buyout while BT’s shares remain low.

Deutsche Telekom chief executive Tim Hottges has said buying a stake in BT was the ‘biggest mistake’ he ever made after its value plummeted.

‘There will be a time when we will do a deal,’ he said earlier this year, without adding further detail on whether this meant launching a takeover.

Reports suggest BT has stepped up talks with its advisers as it hopes to fend off any unwanted approaches. BT owns EE and Openreach, which maintains telephone cables.

There are also concerns about the rising stake of French billionaire Patrick Drahi, who has built up a near-25 per cent holding in BT through his telecoms group Altice. Drahi also owns the auction house Sotheby’s.

Altice was ‘called in’ by the Government last year to examine whether its holding in BT posed a threat to national security. But ministers later concluded there was no need to intervene.

Matt Britzman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said any bids would likely face intense scrutiny by regulators given BT’s key role in the UK’s fibre and 5G infrastructure.

Report: From The Mail on Sunday, July 9

The company is the largest provider of fixed-line and broadband services in Britain – an accolade that any new boss will have to try to cling on to.

Allera, the head of BT’s consumer division, has been widely tipped as the front-runner to replace Jansen. 

Swantee, the former boss of EE, and telecom big guns Ronan Dunne – former president of Verizon Wireless – and Vodafone board member Stephen Carter have also seen their names thrown into the mix.

Whoever takes over will inherit an incomplete turnaround plan.

The £12billion business is aiming to slash between 40,000 and 55,000 jobs from its 130,000-strong workforce by the end of the decade in a wide-ranging effort to cut costs.

Under Jansen, it removed flagship products, including the sale of part of BT Sport to Warner Bros Discovery for £600million, and merging two of its largest units, the Global and Enterprise arms.

Although Jansen has set his sights on rapid expansion of its fibre internet offering across the UK, this investment has proven increasingly expensive in an era of high interest rates and labour costs.

And his strategy has not always proved popular.

Jansen came under fire during Communication Workers Union (CWU) strikes last summer, alongside former Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson.

Nearly 40,000 Openreach workers and call centre workers stood on the picket line over pay. 

Although he eventually agreed a pay deal with the union in November, they have criticised BT plans that could see 10,000 jobs replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Jansen is also thought to have had a turbulent time in BT’s boardroom. It was reported that he clashed with former chairman Jan du Plessis, though the company denied this. In 2021, former ITV chief executive Crozier replaced Du Plessis, who had hired Jansen from payments group Worldpay. 

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: ‘Philip Jansen had a massive list of problems to fix the second he walked in the door as the new boss of BT in February 2019.

‘His decisions were logical. Cut more of the fat from the business, sharpen the focus on providing faster broadband to households across the country and find alternatives for non-core operations such as putting the sports broadcasting arm into a joint venture.

‘Sadly, Jansen is not going to be remembered for being the person who breathed life back into BT. It’s still the slow, creaking juggernaut today that it was before he joined.’

He added: ‘To resign a mere four years into running one of Britain’s best-known companies would suggest Jansen has had enough of the challenges that come with BT.

‘There is speculation he had already been offered a chief executive job by a US tech firm and that he might want to return to running Worldpay.

‘Most chief executives want to grow the company they are leading, but reviving BT has to be one of the least glamorous jobs going. 

Jansen might feel his skills are better utilised with a more innovative business.’

Analysts at Deutsche Bank said: ‘We can’t fault Jansen’s efforts to modernise the company, though his approach was not frictionless.’ The bank recognised the ‘difficult hand’ he had been dealt and backed potential for growth.