STET'S SHARE IN TELEKOM AUSTRIA APPROVED.

The European Commission confirmed on December 17 that its Merger Task Force had approved plans by Italian telecommunications giant STET's Dutch subsidiary STET International Netherlands B.V. to take a controlling stake in the Austrian telecoms company Telekom Austria AG. Post & Telekom Austria AG is currently the only parent company of Telekom Austria and will control the company after the concentration. The TI-Group that owns STET has already had joint control in Telekom Austria's mobile telephone company (Mobilkom) for the last year, but apart from that, is not active in Austria in these areas. "Since the TI-Group has already joint control in Mobilkom", a Commission statement said, "a controlling participation in the parent company Telekom does not lead to a further market share addition in this area in Austria". Despite growing concentration in the European telecommunications sector as...