 In announcing its decision today, the ACCC stated that Vocus and M2 have limited overlaps in the supply of retail and wholesale fixed broadband and voice services, the acquisition of transmission services and the supply of data centre services.
“In markets where Vocus and M2 overlap, they tend to focus on different customer segments, with M2 mainly focused on residential and small business customers and Vocus mainly focused on large enterprise and government customers,” the ACCC noted. Noting that neither are significant suppliers of wholesale transmission services, the ACCC stated that the proposed acquisition “will not significantly increase vertical integration between wholesale and retail telecommunications services providers”. “The ACCC concluded that this was primarily a merger between two complementary businesses,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims commented. “Significantly, the merged firm will also face significant competition from Optus, Telstra and TPG. This merger consolidates the fourth player in the market.” Vocus and M2 entered into a merger implementation agreement at the end of September, which the two companies stated would create a merged company with a combined revenue of around $1.8 billion and a market capitalisation in excess of $3 billion. |
