The Commerce Commission has given clearance for Vocus Communications Limited (Vocus) to acquire up to 100% of the shares and/or assets in M2 Group Limited.

Both Vocus and M2 are Australia based providers of telecommunications services with extensive operations in New Zealand.

The Commission is satisfied that the acquisition will not have, or would not be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in the affected markets.

Commission Chairman Dr Mark Berry said, “While both Vocus and M2 provide calling, broadband and data services to residential and commercial customers, they are not close competitors for any of the services that they provide. We also consider that strong competition will continue to be provided by Vodafone, Spark and Chorus."

The Commission also considered whether merging Vocus’s national fibre optic backhaul network with M2’s retail calling and broadband services would give it the ability to foreclose downstream competitors.

“Given the presence of Spark, Vodafone and Chorus, which all have large backhaul networks, we did not consider that foreclosure would be likely,” said Dr Berry.

A public version of the written reasons for the decision will be available shortly on the Clearances Register.