Philip Jansen ‘desperate’ to hang sick BT
- Jansen has launched the company’s biggest shakeup ever
- Telecom giant wants to cut 40,000 to 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade
- It is believed that 56-year-old Jansen plans to leave next year
BT chief Philip Jansen is ‘desperate to leave’ and preparing plans to quit, according to City sources.
Jansen has led the telecom giant since 2019 and has launched the company’s biggest shake-up ever.
The £12 billion company is aiming to cut between 40,000 and 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade in a wide-ranging effort to cut costs.
It is thought 56-year-old Jansen plans to part ways with Britain’s largest mobile and broadband provider next year.
The company has reportedly begun an official search for a successor.
Call out? Philip Jansen has led BT since 2019 but is ‘desperate to leave’ and plans to quit
An announcement could be made as soon as this week.
A source claimed that Jansen said he did everything he could with the company and to shift the stock price. Since joining BT, the share price has fallen by more than a third.
According to a source, this is unacceptable, says Jansen.
The Mail on Sunday previously reported that headhunters had begun drawing up lists of possible contenders to take over.
The latest developments come days before BT’s annual meeting on Thursday.
Jansen’s plans to cut much of BT’s 130,000-strong workforce – including 30,000 non-staff members – came under criticism from unions when announced in May.
It was controversial in part because about 10,000 jobs could be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
As well as revealing a massive turnaround strategy, Jansen is also said to have had a turbulent time in BT’s boardroom. It was widely reported that he clashed with former company chairman Jan du Plessis, although the company denied this. Former ITV chief executive Adam Crozier replaced Du Plessis, who hired Jansen from payments group Worldpay, in 2021.
But Jansen has also dealt with French billionaire Patrick Drahi who built up a 24.5 per cent stake in BT.
Drahi – who also owns the auction house Sotheby’s – first started investing in 2021 through his telecom group Altice.
His investment was “requested” by the government last year to investigate whether it posed a threat to national security. But the ministers later concluded that intervention was not necessary. BT’s second largest shareholder is another overseas company, Germany’s Deutsche Telekom. CEO Tim Hoettges has previously said buying a stake in BT was the ‘biggest mistake’ he’s ever made after its value plummeted.
Drahi has repeatedly denied that Altice intends to launch a takeover of BT, which also owns the mobile phone network EE and the full-fiber broadband service Openreach.
An important part of Jansen’s strategy is the rapid expansion of its fiber internet offering in the UK. Jansen is phasing out a number of flagship policies introduced by his predecessor Gavin Patterson, who led the group for six years.
Patterson left when it became clear that investors had no confidence in him to guide the group through its own turnaround plan.
Jansen’s policies included selling part of BT Sport to Warner Bros Discovery for £600 million. Jansen is also merging BT’s two largest units, the Global and Enterprise divisions, cutting costs by a further £500m to £3bn a year by the end of 2025.
Jansen’s salary will be scrutinized at the annual general meeting this week. He made £3.1 million last year, including £1.8 million in cash and share prizes.
A spokesman for the BT Group said: ‘As a normal course of business, BT’s board undertakes regular succession planning to ensure it is appropriately preparing for the future.’