BC Partners in Successful Clearance of Merger with Apollo Cable Services

Cleary Gottlieb successfully represented BC Partners in merger control proceedings before the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) regarding BC Partners’ plan to combine its broadband cable network activities with Apollo. The FCO reviewed the transaction after BC Partners and Apollo had employed a recently established and rarely used provision of the EC Merger Control Regulation to request a pre-notification referral from the European Commission to the FCO.

In the merger, BC Partners will combine its subsidiary TeleColumbus with Apollo’s subsidiary iesy/ish in one company jointly controlled by BC Partners and Apollo. iesy/ish owns and operates the largest long-distance broadband cable infrastructure in the North Rhine Westphalia and Hesse regions. TeleColumbus owns and operates local broadband networks throughout Germany and has the largest subscriber base among local broadband providers operating in Germany. The combined company will offer a range of cable TV, pay-TV, voice-over IP, Internet access and related services.