Prior notification of a concentration (Case COMP/M.6574 — KPN/De Persgroep/Roularta/JV) — Candidate case for simplified procedure  Text with EEA relevance
Date: 2012-06-12
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: economic concentration, means of communication, merger control, newspaper, serial publication, telecommunications industry, telephone








C_2012166EN.01000801.xml










12.6.2012   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 166/8





Prior notification of a concentration
(Case COMP/M.6574 — KPN/De Persgroep/Roularta/JV)
Candidate case for simplified procedure
(Text with EEA relevance)
2012/C 166/06






1.


On 5 June 2012, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertakings KPN Group Belgium nv/sa (‘KPN GB’, Belgium), De Persgroep NV (‘De Persgroep’, Belgium) and Roularta Media Group NV (‘Roularta’, Belgium) acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation joint control of the undertaking Hawaii NV by way of purchase of shares in a newly created company constituting a joint venture.










2.


The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:






—


for KPN GB: a 100 % subsidiary of the group held by Koninklijke KPN NV, the incumbent telecommunications provider in the Netherlands. KPN GB is mainly active as a provider of mobile telephony services in Belgium, under its principal brand BASE,










—


for De Persgroep: Belgian family-owned media company, a newspaper publisher in Belgium and the Netherlands, and a magazine publisher in Belgium. De Persgroep and Roularta are jointly controlling Vlaamse Media Maatschappij NV (‘VMMa’) which operates a number of Belgian/Flemish TV channels, such as VTM, 2BE, JIM, vtmKzoom and Vitaya,










—


for Roularta: magazine publisher in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany; owner of TV channels in Belgium,










—


for Hawaii NV: platform provider of content and telecommunication services, offering mobile devices (smart phones, laptops, tablets) users access to mobile telecommunication and mobile content services.














3.


On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the EC Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved. Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for treatment of certain concentrations under the EC Merger Regulation (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in the Notice.










4.


The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.
Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by email to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference number COMP/M.6574 — KPN/De Persgroep/Roularta/JV, to the following address:





European Commission




Directorate-General for Competition




Merger Registry




J-70




1049 Bruxelles/Brussel




BELGIQUE/BELGIË










(1)  OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘EC Merger Regulation’).

(2)  OJ C 56, 5.3.2005, p. 32 (‘Notice on a simplified procedure’).