The Commerce Commission has cleared Telstra Corporation Limited or TelstraSaturn Limited to acquire the share capital of CLEAR Communications Limited or the business conducted by CLEAR.
Commerce Commission Acting Chair Paula Rebstock said that the Commission is satisfied that the proposed acquisition would not substantially lessen competition in any market and the details of the Commission's decision will be available shortly when public copies are released.
Background
TelstraSaturn formed from the merger of Telstra New Zealand Limited and Saturn Communications Limited in April 2000. Shareholders in TelstraSaturn include Austar United Communications Limited, Telstra Holdings Pty Limited and Saturn (NZ) Holding Company Pty Limited.
CLEAR is a wholly owned member of the British Telecommunications plc group of companies. The sole shareholder of CLEAR is Newgate (NZ) Holdings Limited which is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT (Netherlands) Holdings B.V.
TelstraSaturn currently provides the New Zealand market with cable TV, Internet and data services, business Internet services, and owns a web design company called ZIVO. CLEAR offers a range of voice data, Internet and e-commerce services as well as its Internet Service Provider (ISP) - Zfree.
Media contact: Communications Manager Jackie Maitland
