Telefonica, a mammoth Spanish telecom with major mobile networks in the south of Europe and Latin America, has made a bid to acquire UK’s biggest carrier, O2, for GBP 18 billion ($32 billion).

The bid is being recommended by O2’s board and will complete early next year if it is accepted by shareholders. Telefonica has announced that O2 will maintain its current branding with a headquarters in the UK.

Analysts see this expansion as a great move by Telefonica, as the two companies have little overlap in operations and O2 is known for pushing mobile data technologies such as i-mode in the UK.