EU Approves Vivendi Acquisition of Telecom Italia With Conditions

Vivendi SA's (VIV.FR) acquisition of Telecom Italia SpA (TI) was cleared by the European Union's antitrust watchdog Tuesday on the condition the Italian telecommunications operator divests its stake in its digital terrestrial network operator Persidera.

Vivendi holds a significant minority stake in Mediaset, which is also active in the market for the wholesale access to digital terrestrial television networks for the broadcast of TV channels, the EU said.

The European Commission said that after the transaction, Vivendi would have had an incentive to raise prices charged to television channels in that market.

Persidera is a joint venture between Telecom Italia and Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso.

Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 30, 2017 09:32 ET (13:32 GMT)