Mergers: Commission clears acquisition of joint control of a newly created joint venture by Colony Capital and Liberty Global

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of joint control over a newly created joint venture of Luxembourg, by Colony Capital, Inc. of the US and Liberty Global plc of the UK. The joint venture is active in the acquisition, development and commercialisation of technical real estate and data centres for the provision of colocation services in the UK and the European Economic Area. Colony Capital manages a global portfolio composed of, amongst other, investments in digital infrastructure, including macro cell towers, data centres, small cell networks and fibre networks

. Liberty Global is active in the operation of cable networks offering television, broadband internet, fixed-line voice telephony and mobile telecommunications services in several EU Member States. The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns, given the very limited horizontal overlaps and vertical links between the activities of the companies.

The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure. More information is available on the Commission's competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.10241.