The European Commission is due to issue its verdict by 1 June about whether to approve Orange’s acquisition of Spain’s Jazztel, after the French incumbent submitted further concessions to the competition watchdog.
The review process was put on hold almost two weeks ago and resumed again on Friday last week. Neither Orange nor the Commission commented on the reason for the suspension. However, it is understood that the EU had requested further documentation relating to the acquisition from Orange.
The telco said at the time it remained confident that the Jazztel deal will be approved. Orange initially aimed to complete the acquisition in the first half of the year. It has given no indication that this timeframe has changed.
Orange made a €13-per-share offer for Jazztel in September, valuing the fixed-line provider and MVNO at €3.4 billion.
The combination of Orange Spain and Jazztel will create Spain’s second-largest integrated service provider. At the end of 2014, the companies together had 3.5 million fixed broadband and 14.5 million mobile customers.
The prospect of this combined strength was enough to prompt the European Commission to launch an in-depth probe into the transaction due to concerns that the merger would hurt competition in the fixed broadband and triple-play markets.
