The European Commission today announced that it has approved the proposed acquisition of UK cable operator Virgin Media by the US-based Liberty Global. The transaction, which bears a value of €17.2 billion (about $22.5 billion), bringing together the second largest Pay TV operator in the UK i.e. the Virgin Media and the largest cable operator in Europe i.e. Liberty Global.
The Commission further enhanced on that the market for the acquisition of TV content in the UK, Ireland and the European Economic Area (EEA) as a whole and comes to a conclusion that the proposed acquisition would not restricted competition in these markets over TV content which is licensed mainly on a national basis. The Commission further added that the merger entity would still face “sufficient competitive constraint” from other market players in the niche.
