Commission declines clearance for proposed acquisition by TeamTalk
Published03 Dec 1999
The Commerce Commission today declined to clear TeamTalk Limited's proposed acquisition of the assets which comprise the Paging services, Private Mobile Radio, Trunked Mobile Radio and related equipment leasing businesses of Telecom New Zealand Limited.
Commission Chairman John Belgrave said that the Commission concluded that the appropriate market for analysing the proposed acquisition was the national market for trunked mobile radio network services. TeamTalk and Telecom, which operates in the market under the brand name "Fleetlink", are the only two nationwide suppliers currently providing trunked mobile radio network services.
Mr Belgrave said that the Commission was not satisfied that, should the acquisition go ahead, TeamTalk would not acquire a dominant position in the national trunked mobile radio network services market.
Some trunked mobile radio users are captive customers of this technology for functional and economic reasons. They would not be able to switch to other forms of mobile communications, such as cellular.
In addition, the Commission has concluded that the effective entry of new competitors into the national trunked mobile radio network services market is unlikely to occur.
Public copies of the Commission's decision will soon be available from its web site, www.comcom.govt.nz, and are available from reception at its Wellington office, level 7, Landcorp House 101 Lambton Quay.
Background
The Commerce Act prohibits business acquisitions that result, or would be likely to result, in a dominant position being acquired or strengthened in a market.
Persons can apply to the Commission for a clearance of a proposed business acquisition. The Commission will grant a clearance only if it is satisfied that the proposed acquisition would not, or would not be likely to, result in dominance being acquired or strengthened in any market.
