No Longer A 'Bonsai'

Telstra chief executive Ziggy Switkowski quipped in February that Optus had become a "bonsai version of Telstra . . . smallish, well-formed, but not growing". The Optus reorganisation confirms that he was half right.
Optus is growing. But it is, like Telstra, a full-service telco, and its new structure recognises that and capitalises on it by giving Optus' businesses more room to cross-sell and service the group's products.
The old structure was created in 2000 and split Optus into three big divisions, covering mobiles, business services, and consumer-multimedia services such as internet, pay TV and local telephony.
It was designed to facilitate a break-up of the group, and it was drawn up on the order of Optus' financially stretched controlling shareholder, Cable & Wireless of Britain, which wanted to buy the business division and depart. Vodafone was expected to buy the mobiles business, and the consumer and multimedia assets were even-money to be sold, or closed down.
But Vodafone was warned off by the ACCC and, as C&W's problems deepened, it became a seller not a buyer. The break-up plan foundered, and in 2001 Singapore Telecommunications bought Optus lock, stock and barrel.
A restructure aiming the group more directly at consumers and bundling opportunities would have made sense after that. With Optus planning to sweeten its suite of products by converting its pay TV to digital, it has become overdue.