simples
Three UK just goto 02 and say we are going to closes up in the UK hears a deal to take all our uk customer base and keep them on their current deals. Three transfers customers then shutdown down. Now thers are 3 Major Mobile operators. Now Hutchington come along and buy O2 and all the ex Three Customers oh look we now have what we wanted and as there were already 3 operators on the UK market we arnt reducing operators in the market so the buyout can happen. Oh and as we are the 3rd operator lets rebrand to on I dont know Three?