The pooling of Seagram's Universal music arm and Vivendi's multi-access Internet portal Vizzavi also raised concerns. To reassure the Commission, Vivendi undertook to divest its stake in BSkyB and to give rival pay-TV operators access to Universal's films.
Vivendi announced in June it was buying Seagram. The deal was notified to the European Commission for regulatory clearance. Following its market investigation and the examination of a significant number of complaints the Commission found that the transaction as notified significantly affected three markets, namely pay-TV, the emerging pan-European market for portals and the emerging market for on-line music.
By adding Universal's music content to Vivendi's multi-access portal, Vizzavi, the transaction raised serious doubts as to the creation of a dominant position on the emerging pan-European market for portals and on the emerging market for on-line music. In order to remove these concerns, Vivendi offered to give rival portals access to Universal's on-line music content for five years.
The Commission has now declared the merger compatible with the European common market.
Although the Commission last week granted conditional approval to the AOL/Time Warner merger, the Washington Post reports that US regulators will block the $245 billion deal unless an agreement is reached on internet access to ensure that rival ISPs would have access to its high speed cable network. The parties have until 27th October to reach agreement.