Mexico’s competition watchdog blocked a $1.6 billion telecoms deal that would have linked the empires of two of the country’s richest men, sources briefed on the ruling said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The rejection of the proposal will cement telephone tycoon Carlos Slim’s dominance of the Mexican cell phone market, where his companies account for 80 percent of subscribers.<\/p>\n
Watchdog Cofeco’s five-member board ruled on broadcaster Televisa’s planned acquisition of half of phone company Iusacell more than a week ago on January 24, but have said it will not announce the result until both parties had been informed.<\/p>\n
Officials from Cofeco served notice of the decision on Iusacell on Wednesday and sources briefed on the decision told Reuters the proposal had been rejected by three votes to two.<\/p>\n
“They rejected it 3-2, categorically,” a source from one of the companies said.<\/p>\n
The deal would have forged an alliance between media tycoons Emilio Azcarraga, who owns Televisa, and Ricardo Salinas, who owns Iusacell as well as Mexico’s second broadcaster TV Azteca.<\/p>\n
Televisa, the world’s biggest producer of Spanish-language television content, needed Iusacell to add cell phones to its growing basket of services.<\/p>\n
Slim’s Telmex has been denied permission to enter the television.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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