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Notiziario Marketpress di
Mercoledì 09 Giugno 2004
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Pagina3 |
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COMMISSION REFERS PROBE OF KDG’S ACQUISITION OF THE NORTH RHINE WESTPHALIAN BROADBAND CABLE NETWORK TO THE GERMAN FEDERAL CARTEL OFFICE |
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Brussels, 9 June 2004 - The European Commission has decided to refer the examination of the planned acquisition of the ish Gmbh & Co. Kg and ish Ks Nrw Gmbh & Co. Kg, the operator of the North Rhine-westphalian regional broadband cable network, to the German competition authority. The Federal Cartel Office had requested the referral in view of concerns that the acquisition may strengthen the dominant position of Kdg, the acquiring firm, in several markets for the transmission of Tv and radio signals and related services. Kdg operates the former broadband cable network of Deutsche Telekom Ag in all of Germany except in Bundesländer Hessen, Baden-wuerttemberg and North Rhine-westphalia. In the latter Bundesland ish is the operator of the broadband cable network. Both companies offer in their respective network areas the transmission of broadcast signals (Tv and radio) as well as – to a smaller extent - internet access. According to the notified transaction Kdg intends to acquire indirectly 100% of the shares of ish. Kdg further plans to buy also the two remaining regional broadband cable system operators in Germany, namely iesy Hessen and Kabel Baden-wuerttemberg. Unlike in the Kdg/ish operation, the Commission does not have jurisdiction on these two concentrations, which have been notified to the Federal Cartel Office instead. On 14 May 2004 the Federal Cartel Office submitted to the Commission a request for referral, arguing that the merger could lead to the strengthening of dominant positions on several markets. On the market for the feeding-in of broadcast signals, where broadcasters demand the transmission of their signals via the broadband cable, such a strengthening could - according to the Federal Cartel Office - result from the increase of reach that follows the combination of the two networks. Moreover, on the market for services for digital pay-Tv, the market for delivery of signals from the regional broadband cable to the in-house cable systems and the market for the supply of signals to end customers competition could, in the view of the Federal Cartel Office, be further impeded if ish was eliminated as competitor to Kdg which is already considered as dominant on some regional markets. The Commission believes that the Federal Cartel Office is best placed to analyze the stated preliminary competition concerns, as this requires the examination of local markets and specific national circumstances. Moreover, all three proposed acquisitions by Kdg – i.E. The acquisitions of ish, iesy Hessen and Kabel Baden-württemberg – raise similar questions and should therefore be examined uniformly by a single competition authority.
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