Orange Spain and MásMóvil have notified the European Commission (EC) of their intention to merge.
El Economists reports that the EC will make a pronouncement before March 20, either authorising the move or opening an investigation.
If it decides to investigate the proposed merger in depth, the parties will have to agree on some conditions to be met by the merged company in order to ensure that the new company does not distort competition.
As previously reported by Broadband TV News, following a period of exclusive negotiations that began in early March 2022, Orange and MásMóvil signed a binding agreement in July last year to merge their operations in Spain.
The transaction, based on an enterprise value of €18.6 billion – €7.8 billion for Orange Spain and €10.9 billion for MásMóvil (including the acquisition of Euskaltel) – will result in a 50/50 joint venture co-controlled by the two companies.
The resulting entity will be the leading operator in Spain in terms of both fixed and mobile subscribers but will have less revenue than Telefónica.
El Economista notes that since then the parties have been involved in a long period of pre-notification and exchange of documents with the EC.
