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EU: Orange bid for Spain’s Jazztel cleared

By  |  May 19, 2015

The European Commission on Tuesday cleared Orange 3.4-billion-euro acquisition of Spanish telecom Jazztel after the giant French firm agreed steps to ensure the takeover does not hurt competition.

The Commission launched an anti-trust probe into the deal last December on concerns that by cutting the number of telecoms companies in Spain to three from four it would reduce customer choice in the fixed Internet access market.

“In the absence of effective remedies, a merger of these two dynamic players would have significantly reduced competition,” the Commission said in a statement.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said the changes agreed with Orange mean “a new player may enter the market and compete as strongly as Orange and Jazztel do today.”

 

Full content: The Wall Street Journal

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