The UK’s Office of Fair Trading expects to decide whether broadcaster UK BSkyB’s plan to acquire local Wi-Fi operator The Cloud breaches competition rules by 28 March.
An OFT spokesman insisted the investigation is standard practice, and is being carried…
The UK’s Office of Fair Trading expects to decide whether broadcaster UK BSkyB’s plan to acquire local Wi-Fi operator The Cloud breaches competition rules by 28 March.
An OFT spokesman insisted the investigation is standard practice, and is being carried out after Sky notified the authority of the merger.
It has invited interested parties to submit comments on the proposed deal.
Presenting Sky’s first-half results last week, CFO Andrew Griffith told analysts that the planned acquisition is for less that £50m, and is being made to support mobile content activities.
The Cloud has more than 5,000 public Wi-Fi locations across the UK, and will enable Sky to offer its broadband customers extended connectivity in much the same way as incumbent BT does with BT OpenZone.
The investigation comes as UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt prepares to make a decision on whether to allow the proposed takeover of Sky by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
Speaking at a London conference earlier this month, Hunt said he was focused on whether to refer the matter to the Competition Commission, but refused to be drawn on a timetable for the decision.
Sky posted revenues up 15% to £3.186bn for the six months to 31 December 2010, compared with £2.773bn a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA soared 19% to £677m, compared with £568m for the previous fiscal year.
Both Sky and The Cloud were unable to comment before the press deadline.