U.K. operator EE confirmed Monday that CEO Olaf Swantee will step down following the company’s planned acquisition by BT.
Swantee, who has led the company since 2011, will be succeeded by Marc Allera, who currently serves as EE’s chief commercial officer, once the BT deal is completed, the company said.
Swantee said in a statement that he is “immensely proud” of his time with the company and said that leaving EE was the “hardest decision” of his career. Swantee’s next moves were not immediately clear.
The announcement follows news in October that U.K. regulators granted BT provisional approval for the $19.1 billion (12.5 billion British pounds) takeover. The tentative go ahead was given based on research that suggested the merger will not “result in a substantial lessening of competition (SLC) in any market in the UK,” regulators said.
In coming to a decision, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it investigated the deal’s potential impact on several different markets, including retail mobile, wholesale mobile, mobile backhaul, wholesale broadband and retail fixed broadband services.
The CMA is expected to issue a final report on the deal by January 18.
As of the third quarter 2015, EE reported a total of 31.3 million connections on its network and a total of 12.6 million subscribers on its 4G service.
EE had a third quarter operating revenue of $2.3 billion (1.5 billion British pounds), for a slight year-over-year decline of 0.6 percent.