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Millicom closes Telefónica unit purchase; France clears Cellnex, Iliad unit deal

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Millicom closes Telefónica unit purchase; France clears Cellnex, Iliad unit deal

S&P Global Market Intelligence provides a wrap-up of European media and communications deal announcements, completions and updates from Aug. 26 to Aug. 30.

TOP NEWS

* Millicom International Cellular SA completed its acquisition of Telefónica SA unit Telefónica Móviles Panamá SA, a mobile operator in Panama. Millicom made the acquisition through its subsidiary, Cable Onda SA, according to an Aug. 29 news release. This is the second transaction to close since Millicom agreed to buy the operating subsidiaries of Telefónica in Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

* French competition regulator Autorité de la Concurrence on Aug. 30 granted unconditional approval to Cellnex Telecom SA's proposed acquisition of Iliad SA's mobile towers operator unit Iliad 7. The watchdog ruled that the deal would not affect competition in France's market for mobile equipment hosting, since the combined entity's resulting market share would not exceed 40%. It also noted the existence of credible market competitors such as Altice France SA unit Hivory SAS and TDF Infrastructure SAS. Under the transaction, Iliad will sell its mobile towers in France and lease them back from Cellnex Telecom.

Media

* Axel Springer SE's shareholders accepted a voluntary public tender offer by KKR & Co. for an additional 14.7% of Axel Springer shares. Including the shares, the final acceptance rate reached 42.5% of the share capital of Germany-based Axel Springer, according to an Aug. 26 news release. As of the end of the additional acceptance period, KKR struck deals to acquire Axel Springer shares outside the public tender offer corresponding to about 1.04% of the share capital and voting rights of Axel Springer. The completion of the offer remains subject to merger control, foreign investment and media concentration clearances and is expected to occur in the coming months.

Communications

* Volkswagen AG said Aug. 30 that it has taken a minority stake in Luxembourgish technology firm SeeReal Technologies SA to collaborate on "future-oriented" display technologies for cars. The German carmaker is investing in SeeReal, which specializes in the development of augmented reality and holographic technologies, to incorporate these solutions into its future vehicles. Volkswagen is expecting the collaboration to help the company develop three-dimensional, "touchable" head-up displays that can project information into the driver's field of vision, with direct links to the driver's environment.

* Accenture PLC completed its acquisition of Australian big data and analytics consultancy Analytics8. The acquisition will strengthen Accenture's capabilities to deliver AI-powered data and advanced analytics services in Australia and New Zealand. Analytics8 is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Accenture.

* Verdane Capital entered into an agreement to acquire all outstanding shares in EMG - Educations Media Group AB, together with its co-founders, from private equity firm Novax AB and other shareholders. EMG CEO and founder Fredrik Söderlindh, co-founder and Chief Information Officer Fredrik Högemark, and co-founder and COO Mattias Säker will reinvest to jointly become majority owners as part of the transaction. EMG joins Verdane Capital's portfolio of 19 consumer internet companies across the Nordics and Germany.

* London-based ClearCourse Partnership LLP is expanding its business services portfolio with the acquisition of BrightOffice Ltd., a software-as-a-service company focused on enterprise customer relationship management software solutions. ClearCourse is a portfolio company of New York-based private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners LLC.

* Waterland Private Equity Investments BV is bringing business software companies Ad Ultima NV and Pylades together, as part of a strategic investment. The private equity firm will take a majority stake in the combined entity under the deal.

* Chinese steelmaker Jiangsu Shagang Group Co. Ltd. became the largest shareholder in U.K.-based data center operator Global Switch Holdings Ltd. with a 49% stake after acquiring an additional 24% interest for £1.8 billion, Reuters reported Aug. 27. The additional stake was acquired from Reuben Brothers unit Aldersgate Investments Ltd.

* Accenture acquired engineering services provider Fairway Technologies Inc. California-based Fairway Technologies has offices in San Diego and Irvine, California, and in Austin, Texas.

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