LONDON (Alliance News) - The UK Competition and Markets Authority said Monday it is considering whether or not UBM PLC's sale of its PR Newswire business raises competition concerns, and whether or not the sale of the Agility business of PR Newswire to Innodata Inc prevents a substantial lessening of competition in the UK.
Last week UBM said New Jersey-based Innodata agreed to buy the assets and rights of PR Newswire's Agility business from the entity that Cision AB set up to buy PR Newswire. Agility is PR Newswire's media-industry database, with the contact details of over 600,000 journalists and bloggers globally, and also provides media monitoring tools.
Completion of this sale is contingent on the completion of the sale of the overall PR Newswire business to Cision.
Towards the end of 2015, UBM agreed to sell PR Newswire for USD841.0 million to Cision, a PR software company owned by Chicago-based private equity house GTCR Canyon Holdings. The consideration includes USD810.0 million in cash and USD31.0 million in preferred equity in Cision.
The UK CMA said on Monday it is considering whether the deal would create a relevant merger situation under the Enterprise Act 2002, and if so, whether it would result in a substantial lessening of competition. GTCR has acknowledged that, absent the sale of Agility to Innodata, the deal "gives rise to a realistic prospect" of a lessening of competition in the UK media databases space.
Shares in UBM were down 0.2% at 568.00 pence Monday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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