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America Movil to install Ericsson man at Telekom Austria: sources

The Telekom Austria headquarters are pictured in Vienna August 13, 2014. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

VIENNA (Reuters) - Mexico's America Movil is set to install Ericsson manager Alejandro Plater as new operations chief at Telekom Austria, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday. Mexican billionaire Slim owns around 60 percent of Telekom Austria and has said he wants to use it as a base for further expansion into central and eastern Europe, where Telekom Austria has operations in six countries including Bulgaria and Croatia. Plater, Vice President at Ericsson in Mexico and "Head of Customer Unit America Movil" according to his LinkedIn page, has worked with the Mexican company on building cutting edge mobile internet networks in Central America. Current Chief Technology Officer, Günther Ottendorfer, may leave Telekom Austria as a result of Plater's possible arrival, one source said. Telekom Austria declined to comment on its ahead of its supervisory board meeting next Thursday. "The most likely option is that Ottendorfer leaves, but nothing has been officially decided," one source said, adding that it was "relatively fixed" that Plater was coming. Telekom Austria, partly state-owned, currently only has three top managers. After completing a 1-billion-euro cash call in November, it has said it is on the lookout for smaller acquisitions in its regional footprint in central and eastern Europe. (Reporting by Angelika Gruber and Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)