The
European Commission has the duty to assess mergers and acquisitions involving
companies with a turnover above certain thresholds (see Article 1 of the Merger Regulation) and to prevent
concentrations that would significantly impede effective competition in the
European Economic Area.
The EC
has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of most of
Nokia Corporation's devices & services business (the "D&S
business") by Microsoft Corporation. The D&S business mainly produces
and sells smartphones and feature phones.
The
Commission concluded that the transaction would not raise any competition
concerns, in particular because there are only modest overlaps between the
parties' activities.
More
information will be available on the competition website,
in the Commission's public case register under the case
number M.7047.