Altech goes legal against MTN’s R1.4 billion acquisition of Verizon

THE Competition Tribunal is set for a bitter legal exchange, after technology group, Altech won the right to grill MTN on its planned R1,4 billion acquisition of Verizon.

Lawyers representing Altech, which maintains that the proposed deal should be stalled, as it will allow cellular giant, MTN to have an added unfair dominance in the data market, have been granted the right to grill MTN.

With the latest development, Altech can now cross-examine witnesses and access all documents related to the deal.

With the tribunal having, on Monday, also granted Altech the right to participate in all the hearings, which both MTN and Verizon vainly tried to oppose, Altech is now on an even keel, as it can also influence the hearings.

It can now ask the tribunal to summon witnesses of its choice, cross examine everyone, produce expert reports or documents that may influence findings, present arguments and inspect evidence on the merger, subject to confidentiality clauses between MTN and Verizon, while also having the right to see the report of the Competition Commission, which has recommended approval of the controversial deal.

The MTN endeavour has been in the centre of opposition by many other companies, which were concerned that the dominant network would increase its “anti-competitive” behaviour by bundling voice and data packages at favourable rates rivals could not compete with, but the commission felt rivals could compete, and MTN would not gain an unfair competitive advantage.

Altech CEO Craig Venter dismissd claims that his company’s battle with MTN is centred on having been outmuscled by MTN, in their bid to buy Verizon, saying that he was no longer interested in taking over Verizon’s networking operations in SA and a handful of other Africa countries.

He said that he was fighting the deal to stop the cellular operator becoming too dominant in another aspect of the industry.
MTN already has 23-million voice subscribers, who also had access to its data services and acquiring Verizon would give it a dramatically larger market share, according to Venter.

“This deal is anticompetitive and would certainly pave the way for MTN to become dominant in the data space and its ability to cross-subsidise its voice and internet services raises a profound concern about the potential to abuse its dominance in the voice market to unfairly dominate the data market too,” said Venter.

ITNewsAfrica Johannesburg