TalkTalk to cut 580 jobs

Job cuts

TalkTalk has confirmed it will be cutting around 580 jobs due to a restructuring of the company.

Following the acquisitions of AOL Broadband in 2006 and Tiscali UK in 2009, TalkTalk claimed it had essentially operated as three separate companies, each with its own IT, HR and financial departments.

The firm now believes it needs to integrate the departments into one central services team and bring in all its IT operations to the same technology team. However, this means many members of staff will be left without a role.

"Our priority is to run more efficiently and effectively while continuing to enhance the quality of service we provide," said Dido Harding, chief executive of (CEO) TalkTalk.

"To that end we have maintained our level of customer support and safeguarded customer service roles as much as we possibly can."

The company has also announced it will re-brand its business division, changing the name from Opal to the more appropriate TalkTalk Business.

The restructure is only in the consultation stage at present but TalkTalk hopes to have completed all the changes by April this year.

TalkTalk officially split from former parent company CarphoneWarehouse in 2010. When the spin-off was confirmed in 2009, following mounting speculation, the company's chief executive Charles Dunstone said that the time was right to separate.

"It's been increasingly obvious that the group is now two businesses," he said during a conference call.

"Both have reached the point where there are no material synergies between them... they need to operate independently."

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.