Liberty Global boss Mike Fries has described the European Commission’s interest in cross-border telecom consolidation as a “a dream that doesn’t reflect reality”.
Speaking at last week’s Mobile World Congress, Fries said that despite recent indications that the EU was becoming more merger-friendly, the dream ignored the reality of running a business. He said the cost savings of running in multiple markets was marginal, illustrating Liberty’s withdrawal from a number of European markets, including Germany. In all, Liberty has reduced its involvement from 17 territories to just five; and those remaining are often as joint ventures.
Earlier, EU’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton had told delegates that the Commission needed to review the obstacles that were seen as holding back the continent’s “collective potential”.
A test as to how much the Commission as a whole backs Breton’s words will come in Spain later when regulators study the proposed merger of Orange and MasMovil.
Fries, who has been at the helm of Liberty Global since 2005 says there will be a good news story to come as operators have been able to increase prices by as much as 14% in some markets with very little pushback from politicians and regulators.
