Court bars Bezeq,Yes merger
August 24, 2009
The Supreme Court in Israel has rejected the planned merger of telco Bezeq with DTH satellite platform Yes. Bezeq intended to increase its stake in Yes to 58% from the present 49.8%. However, the Supreme Court accepted petitions from the anti-trust authority and Yes minority shareholder Eurocom Group who wanted to stop the merger as anticompetitive.
The ruling leaves the door open to a potential counterbid from Eurocom, which currently holds 30% of Yes. Beseq had said it wouldn't expand its IPTV network if the Yes bid were allowed to proceed, the DTH operation could have formed part of a Bezeq triple play offer that would have been able to compete with the offer already in place from cable operator HOT.