EU approves acquisition of DNA by Telener

The European Commission on Tuesday announced that it had approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of DNA Plc of Finland, by Telenor ASA of Norway, said a EC press release.

DNA provides mobile and fixed communications services, broadband internet services and TV distribution services in Finland. Telenor provides mobile and fixed telecommunications services and TV distribution services in the Nordic region.

The European Commission (EC) found that the proposed transaction would raise no competition concerned, because there are very limited horizontal overlaps between the companies’ activities in the market of retail TV services in Finland, the wholesale market for acquisition of TV channels and the possible market for machine-to-machine (M2M) subscriptions for business customers.

A number of strong players would remain in each of the markets after the merger. In addition, the EC found no problems regarding the vertical links between the upstream markets for wholesale international roaming and wholesale mobile and fixed call termination services, and the downstream markets for retail mobile and fixed telecommunications services.

The transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure.