The Austrian antitrust regulator has denied that it has decided to challenge a cartel court decision which approved the acquisition of Yesss! by Telekom Austria.
In an article published on its website yesterday, Austrian Wirtschaftsblatt had quoted a…
The Austrian antitrust regulator has denied that it has decided to challenge a cartel court decision which approved the acquisition of Yesss! by Telekom Austria.
In an article published on its website yesterday, Austrian Wirtschaftsblatt had quoted a spokesperson for the Federal Competition Authority, BWB, as saying the regulator had decided to appeal the clearance decision by the cartel court.
According to the article, the spokesperson argued that the court decision was based on an expert opinion that was, in the regulator’s view, “in large parts wrong and incomplete”.
However, a different BWB spokesperson told TelecomFinance today that the article was incorrect. The BWB was still reviewing the court ruling and would announce its decision on 17 December. It would then have up to 28 December to file its appeal, if it decided to do so.
TelecomFinance reported earlier that the BWB is expected to appeal the decision, citing two analysts.
In late November the cartel court had cleared the proposed sale of Orange Austria’s Yesss! MVNO to Telekom Austria. The deal is closely connected to the €1.3bn sale of Orange Austria to Hutchison, which is still subject to a separate antitrust review, conducted by the European Commission. Both deals were announced on the same day in February. The Hutchison/Orange Austria transaction is expected to be conditionally cleared within days, subject to a number of undertakings by Hutchison.
Telekom Austria has agreed to acquire Yesss! from Orange Austria alongside frequencies, base station sites and certain intellectual property rights, for €390m.
Regulatory approval for the frequencies Telekom Austria acquired from Orange Austria is still pending.
