German cable consolidation blocked?
April 6, 2009
According to German press reports the federal compeition authorities are set to block any putitive merger of the country's major operators.
There has been much specualtion that the major three networks, KDG, Unity and Kabel BW – all owned by private equity and all derived from the former Deutsche Telekom network – want to 're-merge' and benefit from the economies of scale. All three are heavily indebted. However, the Bundeskartellamt is said to object to such a deal as it would be anticompetitve and recreate a defacto monopoly.