Commission holds TeamTalk/Telecom conference
Commission holds TeamTalk/Telecom conference tomorrow
Media Release 2000/36
The Commerce Commission will hold a conference to consider TeamTalk Limited’s application for authorisation to acquire Telecom New Zealand Limited’s trunked mobile radio business, Fleetlink, tomorrow (Wednesday, May 3).
The Commission’s Commerce Act
Manager, Geoff Thorn, said that the Commission expects to
release its final decision by May 17.
The Commerce
Act prohibits business acquisitions that result in dominance
being acquired or strengthened in any market. However, it
allows an otherwise prohibited acquisition to be authorised
if the Commission is satisfied that public benefits from the
proposal outweigh its detriments to competition.
On
March 24 the Commission released its draft determination
stating that, based on information then available, public
benefits from the proposal outweighed detriments to
competition by between $3.6 million and $10.7 million over
five years.
The Act gives the Commission 60 working
days in which to investigate an application, release a draft
determination giving its preliminary view, receive
submissions on the draft determination, hold a conference
and then draw together the information from its own
investigation, the submissions and the conference to make
its final decision.
Conference
details
Venue: Gilmer Room, Copthorne Plimmer Towers, Wellington
Indicative timetable: 10.30am to 10.40am, introduction from the Chair
10.40am to 11.30am, TeamTalk
11.30am to 11.50am, morning tea
11.50am to 12.30pm, MCS Digital
12.30pm to 1pm, Telecom
1pm to 2pm, lunch
2pm to 3pm, TeamTalk’s right of reply.
Procedure: The conference is open to the public and the media to observe and report, though only interested parties can participate.