EU Conditionally Approves Liberty Global's Ziggo Acquisition

By Dimitrios Kontos

The European Commission said Wednesday that it has conditionally approved cable TV-operator Liberty Global PLC's (LBTYA) acquisition of Dutch company Ziggo NV (ZIGGO-YY).

Liberty Global has accepted terminating clauses in its channel-carriage agreements that limit broadcasters' ability to offer their channels and content online, and exclude such clauses for eight years, to address the commission's competition concerns.

The company has offered to maintain adequate interconnection capacity through at least three routes into its internet network in the Netherlands--also for the next eight years--and to refrain from re-acquiring the Film1 channel.

The commission said the proposed transaction, as modified by the commitments, would no longer raise competition concerns but that its decision is conditional upon full compliance.

The merger was first approved in 2014 but that approval was annulled by the EU's General Court in 2017.

Write to Dimitrios Kontos at dimitrios.kontos@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 30, 2018 10:06 ET (14:06 GMT)

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