Tag: Merger

Amidst the euphoria unleashed by the European Central Bank’s bond-buying plan, it is easy to miss the immense challenges posed by two complex dossiers that have just landed on leaders’ desks: the proposed EADS/BAE merger and a planned single banking supervisor, writes Hugo Dixon.

In a complete U-turn, the European Commission has given its approval to Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Sources close to the negotiation of the controversial deal say Neelie Kroes, the EU's competition commissioner, bowed to political pressure from the US to approve the move.

The European Court of Justice has ruled against Spain's energy regulator, which previously succeeded in blocking a takeover attempt of Endesa by Germany's E.ON. Meanwhile, Brussels has said it will take a closer look at a blocked merger in Hungary's oil and gas sector.  

After 18 months of political and legal setbacks, the two French utilities announced the conclusion of a merger deal that will create the world's third-largest utility, in a move that some say goes counter to the Commission's objective of opening up the EU's energy sector to greater competition.

Italian bank UniCredit has agreed to buy smaller rival Capitalia to create Europe's second largest bank behind HSBC, in a move that further accelerates the consolidation of the eurozone’s banking industry.

The European Parliament has endorsed plans to improve rules on how banking mergers are approved with the aim of making them more transparent and free from political intervention.

Commissioner McCreevy wants to raise the efficiency and transparency for merger and acquisition (M&A) approval process.

The European Court of First Instance has overturned the Commission's 2004 decision to clear the merger of the music units of Sony and BMG Bertelsmann, putting future mergers in the music industry in question.

The Commission is to take legal action against the Italian central bank concerning the blocking of certain foreign takeover bids.

Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has presented European finance ministers with evidence of significant hurdles to banking mergers within the EU. 

Commissioner McCreevy has conceded that the Commission is unlikely to take action against the Italian bank governor over recent banking takeover scandals.

Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is determined to open up the banking sector across Europe but, as a takeover battle in the Italian banking sector looms, there may be obstacles in his way. 

The Commission's blocking in 2001 of the merger between Tetra Laval (packaging, Switzerland/Sweden) and Sidel (plastic bottles, France) has been definitively overruled by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).