Competition watchdog gives Future deal conditional go ahead
The competition watchdog has given the green light to Future’s £140m acquisition of TI Media, it was announced on Monday – subject to the sale of three "closely competing" products.
The Bristol-based magazine publisher, owner of around 130 brands including What Hi-F?, PC Gamer, and Metal Hammer, announced in October it was to acquire TI Media, which owns TVTimes, Horse & Hound, Country Life, and the now online-only fashion title Marie Claire, among others.
The deal will give Future around 220 brands, and create one of Europe’s largest magazine companies.
The Competition and Markets Authority launched a review, but on Monday said it did not raise competitions concerns, “subject to sale of three closely competing publications”.
The CMA pointed to Future’s ownership of market-leading football and photography titles FourFourTwo and Digital Camera, as well as technology websites such as T3.com. TI Media, meanwhile, owns WorldSoccer, Amateur Photographer and Trustedreviews.com.
Colin Raftery, senior director of mergers at the CMA, said: “Online content is having a major impact on the publishing industry, but specialist magazines still sell millions of copies each year, and are highly valued by their readers because of the breadth and quality of their content.
“If future were to hold all of these titles, there’s a real risk that these readers of football and photography magazines could end up paying more for lower quality products because of the lack of choice in the market.”
Future and TI Media have five working days to respond. If unable to do so, the merger will be referred for a more in-depth Phase 2 investigation.
In a statement, Future said it was “in discussion with the CMA on the potential remedies to be offered to mitigate these competition issues, with a view to agreeing a basis on which it can close the transaction as soon as practicable.
“Future will provide an update on completion of the TI Media acquisition in due course.”
Shares in Future were trading 27% lower at 679.0p by midday, on another turbulent day for stock markets.