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O2 is actually a trading brand of Telefonica Europe plc however its beginnings can be found as the coming together of two BT subsidiaries “BT Wireless” and “Genie Internet” in the second half of the 1990s.

It was in November 2001 that these BT companies carried out a demerger to help improve their capital position for their shareholders. Some of the companies involved in the demerger were BT Cellnet, which became O2 UK, Esat Digifone which became O2 Ireland and Genie Internet, which split into O2 Online and O2 Asia. Overall the parent company was named mmo2 but changed its name again to O2 plc in 2005.

After a five year period of independence and at a cost of £17.7 billion the O2 group was acquired by Telefonica of Spain on 23 January 2006 in what was described at that time as the biggest all-cash takeover in the history of the telecommunications industry.

Following the purchase the company was renamed Telefonica O2 Europe plc and in 2006 O2 UK acquired a UK-based DSL broadband company called Be Unlimited.

In June 2008, the company was renamed Telefonica Europe plc. The company has its group headquarters in Slough, UK, with its Irish Headquarters in Dublin. It has several hundred national retail outlets across many countries offering mobile phone, fixed telephony and broadband DSL products