4 ms·

How can the competition authority allow this to happen?

• richardwhiuk 10y ago
  I don't think it's been agreed yet.
• rayiner 10y ago
  It hasn't happened yet, but I'd suspect the merger will be approved. First, the general assumption among most competition authorities these days is that companies should be free to merge unless doing so would raise serious antitrust concerns. The focus of antitrust theory is on companies that compete directly with each other (e.g. Microsoft versus Google compete directly in search). Vertical integration (e.g. Apple buys Netflix), in comparison, doesn't raise the same concerns of immediate and direct reduction in competition.
  • _delirium 10y ago
    In cases where vertical integration raises concerns, antitrust regulators seem to have also gotten more comfortable with attaching merger conditions rather than blocking the merger entirely. For example telecom mergers that produce vertical integration routinely are approved with conditions regarding third-party infrastructure access. The first big deal I can remember with such a condition was the AOL-Time Warner merger, which was approved on condition that Time Warner offer third-party ISPs wholesale access to its cable network. Now that there are several big regulators involved (the EU, US, and China, mainly), that kind of thing could still scuttle deals, though, if the set of conditions becomes too big and conflicting. I'm pretty sure I recently ran across one such deal, that was approved but with conditions that investors balked at, effectively killing it, but googling isn't turning it up.