The Commerce Commission has received an application from Bauer Media Group (NZ) LP (Bauer) seeking clearance to acquire certain magazine publishing assets of APN Specialist Publications NZ Ltd (APN).

Bauer proposes to acquire the assets used in the publication of the New Zealand editions of the following magazines: New Zealand Woman’s Weekly; Simply You; Simply You Living; NZ Listener; Crème.

APN will continue to hold the licensed magazine titles: New Idea, That’s Life!, and Girlfriend.

Bauer is an international publishing and distribution group with four core divisions covering lifestyle magazines, trade publications, property websites and publications, and the distribution of independent and own title publications.

APN is a subsidiary of APN News and Media Limited, a publicly listed media company with interests in magazine and newspaper publishing, radio, web content and printing.

A public version of the application will be available shortly on our Clearances Register.

Background

Assessing an application for a merger or acquisition

When considering a proposed merger, the Commission must decide whether the competition that is lost in a market when two businesses merge is substantial. We will give clearance to a proposed merger only if we are satisfied that the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.

A fact sheet explaining how the Commission assesses a merger application is available on the Merger Assessment Fact Sheet page.