Vodafone Portugal’s desire to buy Nowo has been going on for a long time, more precisely around a year and a half ago. Vodafone announced on September 30, 2022 that it intended to buy Nowo, but after all this time the Competition Authority prevented the deal. Know the reason.
Vodafone says an opportunity is being missed
The Competition Authority failed the sale of Nowo to Vodafone. In a communication sent to Lusa, the “AdC confirms that it issued a draft decision opposing the operation” and that “the acquirer, despite having presented several packages of commitments, failed to demonstrate that this acquisition would not have a negative impact on competition” .
The AdC's concerns with the operation are related to the competitive pressure that Nowo currently exerts in the national telecommunications market and which it would no longer exert if it were acquired by Vodafone
Lusa contacted an official source from Vodafone Portugal, saying that it “regrets and disagrees with the draft decision announced today by the Competition Authority which, if confirmed, will make the acquisition of Nowo unfeasible”.
According to Vodafone:
This misses an opportunity to reinforce the level of competitiveness in the market, which would bring clear benefits to customers and the sector.
It should be remembered that the announcement of the purchase of Nowo by Vodafone Portugal was made on September 30, 2022. The operator states that it always clarified all doubts and sought to respond to the concerns raised by the AdC, with the presentation of commitment packages.
Vodafone Portugal states that the “AdC decided to reject the proposed measures, which is a surprising departure from the consolidated practice of the European Commission, which just a few weeks ago approved a much larger operation in Spain accepting a substantially lighter package of commitments”.
Thus, “the draft decision now known, the foundations of which Vodafone is analyzing, to be confirmed, makes it impossible to reinforce Vodafone's investment in the national market and is a wasted opportunity to increase the level of competitiveness and innovation in the market” , Vodafone concludes its statement.
