VMO2 braces for thousands of job cuts as £22bn debt weighs

Virgin Media O2 is preparing to cut thousands of jobs — with one insider putting the figure as high as 4,000 — as investor concern grows over the operator's ability to manage its £22 billion debt pile, according to a Sky News report.

The company, jointly owned by Liberty Global and Telefónica, employs around 16,000 people. Sources close to the operator said plans under preparation would make a significant number of those roles redundant over the coming months.

The exact headcount has not been confirmed ahead of VMO2's third-quarter results, due next Tuesday. Sources told Sky News the cuts are nonetheless likely to run into the thousands, with one insider suggesting that as many as 4,000 jobs could be at risk across the business.

Who has been told so far?

Trade union representatives from the CWU and Prospect are understood to have already been briefed on some of the planned changes, the report stated. That early engagement with unions signals the company is laying procedural groundwork before any formal redundancy consultation begins.

Most of those affected are expected to work in non-customer-facing roles, according to one insider. A number of senior management changes are also already under way at the company, which is led by chief executive Lutz Schüler.

The scope of the cost programme remains fluid. "The final numbers on cost reduction are still moving around," one person close to the situation told Sky News. A VMO2 spokesman declined to comment on the redundancy plans.

Why the debt matters

The £22 billion debt load sits at the centre of investor unease. VMO2 was formed in 2021 from the merger of Virgin Media and O2's UK operations, bringing together Liberty Global's cable network and Telefónica's mobile business under a joint venture structure.

That leverage now frames the operator's cost decisions. Investors are questioning the company's ability to service and manage the debt, and a broad redundancy programme would be the most direct lever for reducing operating costs at scale.

For a workforce of roughly 16,000, a cut of 4,000 positions would represent about a quarter of the company's employees. Even at the lower end of the reported range, the reduction would rank among the larger headcount reductions in the European telecoms sector this year.

The reported focus on non-customer-facing roles points to back-office, administrative and management functions as the primary targets. The senior management changes already under way suggest the shake-up extends to the top of the organisation rather than stopping at frontline staff.

What comes next

The timing ties the decision to a hard date. VMO2 reports third-quarter results next Tuesday, and sources indicated the company did not want to fix final numbers before that milestone.

For the telecoms industry, the report adds VMO2 to a wider pattern of job cuts that has hit operators across Europe as they balance network investment against shareholder pressure on costs. The operator has simultaneously continued to push its commercial agenda, recently rolling out 2Gbps broadband across its cable network and publicly criticising rival BT's deal with TalkTalk.

Union briefings, management reshuffles and a scheduled results date mean the coming weeks will show whether the reported thousands of redundancies become a formal programme — and at what final scale — as Schüler's team confronts the £22 billion question hanging over the business.