The European Commission has restarted its investigation into the proposed takeover of O2 Ireland by Hutchison.
The deadline for a decision is now 20 June 2014 according to the EC website – just one working day before the EC also has to announce its…
The European Commission has restarted its investigation into the proposed takeover of O2 Ireland by Hutchison.
The deadline for a decision is now 20 June 2014 according to the EC website – just one working day before the EC also has to announce its decision in the separate E-Plus/Telefonica Germany merger case.
A person familiar with the situation told TelecomFinance last week that a relaunch of the Irish merger review was imminent, following a halt of more than one month, officially because the regulator had requested further documentation from the merging parties.
The insider told TelecomFinance that talks to tweak remedies to secure antitrust approval continued in April.
The merger control procedure was launched in early October 2013 and its deadline had been extended several times before the EC stopped the clock on 1 April.
The EC investigations into mergers of mobile operators in Ireland and in Germany respectively are followed by deal makers in Europe with keen interest. If the EC allows the deals to go ahead it will be seen as a sign that further in-country consolidation in Europe is possible.
Both transactions will reduce the number of competitors in mobile markets from four to three players – a degree of consolidation that antitrust regulators often opposed to in the past.
In late 2012, the European Commission approved the four-to-three merger of Orange Austria and Hutchison subject to significant remedies.
