Television, competition alert: "Mediaset places further armor on the TV market". It is Giuseppe Giulietti in the Chamber (mixed group) and Vincenzo Vita in the Senate (pd) who simultaneously underline the risks associated with the merger project by incorporation of the Mediaset division, Ei Towers, into Dmt.
The operation - the two MPs remarked - would lead to "the creation of a subject that would have close to 100 per cent control over the sites and pylons and will give birth to the first manager of telecommunications towers in Italy". And with one question to Corrado Passera retrace the steps of the operation "which exceeds the ceiling of 440 million": Mediaset with Ei will enter the company's shareholding with 60% of the capital. Lazard Am, Octavian advisor, Premian investment, Lawrence Flinn jr, Barclays will be part of the project. In addition, Mediaset will purchase another 6% of Dmt from the company Millennium, and therefore "the tower market is transformed into a duopoly divided between Dmt itself and Rai Way, identical to the advertising and television market". In short, "with the merger with Dmt, Mediaset thus places a further armor on the TV market", denounce Giulietti and Vita.
The two parliamentarians point out how "in similar situations both the opening - by the Antitrust - of an investigation into the operation and the parallel request for an opinion from the telecommunications authority" and they ask the minister whether it is not appropriate to request a survey of the sector in the light of developments "that risk seeing a restriction of competition".
