Liberty Global has abandoned plans to acquire the Polish cable operator Multimedia Polska. The takeover first announced in October 2016 was still awaiting regulatory approval, and Liberty Global said it was unable to reach a new agreement with Multimedia on revised conditions for the deal.
In a filing with the SEC, Liberty Global said its unit UPC Poland has withdrawn its application for regulatory clearance of the takeover "after failing to agree on revised commercial terms with the sellers that take into account current regulatory and market conditions". In addition, the agreement to acquire Multimedia was terminated.
The takeover of Poland's third-largest cable operator would have significantly strengthened UPC's market lead in Poland. The acquisition was valued at PLN 3.0 billion (USD 760 million).
The competition regulator Uokik said last October that the merger would have resulted in competition problems in the TV and broadband market in at least 11 cities, where the combined group's market share would have reached 40 to 80 percent. It opened a second stage of investigation and solicited market feedback on the expected impact on competition from the merger.
Uokik confirmed that Liberty Global had withdrawn its request for clearance. The regulator said the companies made "several proposals" to change the merger terms in an attempt to secure approval, but these were not enough to alleviate the competition concerns.
