History
VMA was founded in October 2000, as a 50/50 business partnership between Virgin Mobile UK and Optus. VMA was Australia's first Mobile Virtual Network Operator. In this case the arrangement was to use the Optus network infrastructure but with Virgin management of all aspects of the customer experience including branding of products, customer service and billing.
In 2002, Virgin Mobile UK increased its shareholding to 74.15 per cent after Optus refused to inject more cash into the operations. Optus was reported to have lost A$116 million from the operation since the joint venture began.
At the end of 2005, VMA claimed over 300,000 customers.
In January 2006, Optus bought all other shares in the business, and VMA became a wholly owned subsidiary of Optus. A long-term licensing agreement is now in place for the business to continue trading under the Virgin brand.
In April 2006, VMA was merged with SIMplus and M8, other Optus subsidiaries. The new entity, still trading as Virgin Mobile Australia, now claims a customer base of over 500,000 customers.
In April 2010, shortly after attaining 1 million customers, VMA made big changes by replacing former CEO Peter Bithos with new chief Sue Bailey and appointed Michael Seymour as CFO.
Read more about this topic: Virgin Mobile Australia
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