The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has opened an in-depth review of the proposed acquisition of cabelco Kabel BW by Liberty Global. A spokesperson for the FCO told TelecomFinance a decision had been made to take the case into phase II.
The new…
The German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has opened an in-depth review of the proposed acquisition of cabelco Kabel BW by Liberty Global. A spokesperson for the FCO told TelecomFinance a decision had been made to take the case into phase II.
The new deadline for a decision is now around 11 November, although the cartel office has the option to further push back the deadline for the investigation, usually in agreement with the merging parties.
The spokesperson did not give reasons for the phase II review beyond referring to “the complexity of the case”.
The proposed merger had initially been notified with the European Commission, but was referred to the German Cartel office soon after due to the impact of the transaction on the German market. The company filed with the FCO on 11 July.
Receiving antitrust approval has been described as tricky by experts previously, given Liberty’s strong presence in the market and negative merger decisions by the FCO in the past.
In 2004 the German authority had blocked the merger of cable operators KDG, Ish, Iesy and Kabel BW. Antitrust experts believe however that increased competition from IPTV and digital terrestrial TV as well as the appointment of a new head of the FCO’s telecommunications merger unit in autumn last year might result in the FCO taking a fresh look at mergers of cable operators this time.
