Bezeq The Israeli Telecommunication Co. Ltd. (TASE: BEZQ) notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) today that Antitrust Authority director Ronit Kan will not approve the merger between BezeqCall Communications and Tadiran Telecom Business Systems Ltd. Last August BezeqCall signed an agreement for the acquisition of Tadiran Telecom but waited for regulatory approval, which was not forthcoming. According to Kan, had the move gone ahead it would have further strengthened Bezeq's domination of the market. BezeqCall was recently merged into Bezeq International.
The merger request was also fiercely opposed by a number of telecommunications companies, such as NetVision Ltd. (TASE: ), Globcall (which was recently merged with Netvision), and Golden Lines International Communication Services Ltd. Globcall objected to the merger because the direct competition it would have faced from BezeqCall and Tadiran Telecom for end-point networks, while Golden Lines feared a takeover by Bezeq, through BezeqCall, of the domestic telecommunications business market.
Market sources believe that the company formed by the BezeqCall-Tadiran Telecom merger would have controlled a 45% share of the end-point network market for medium-sized businesses (up to 100 extensions), 56% of the market for medium-to-large businesses (up to 500 extensions), and 61% of the market for large businesses (500 extensions and upward).
In August, Bezeq signed an agreement for the acquisition of Tadiran Telecom by BezeqCall for NIS 93 million. Tadiran Telecom is owned by Robomatix Technologies Ltd. (Pink Sheets: RBMXF.PK), which is controlled by Zvi Barinboim.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 27, 2007
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