SP Telemedia's shareholders will vote on the friendly merger with privately owned company TPG on April 7. Soul Patts intends to vote in favour of the deal, which is expected to signal the beginning of major consolidation among the third-tier telecoms. The deal is essentially a reverse takeover because interests associated with TPG's founder and chief executive, David Teoh, will become the merged group's major shareholder with a 39 per cent stake, while Soul Patts' holdings will shrink to 28 per cent from more than 46 per cent. Mr Teoh will become executive chairman of the merged business and TPG will gain two board seats while Soul Patts will have only one.