EU suspends probe into Sony/Bertelsmann merger
The EU Commission has confirmed that its probe into the merger of the music operations of Sony Corporation and Bertelsmann has been put on hold until more information on the deal has been gathered.
The probe was suspended after the commission sent information requests to both parties last Wednesday asking for more information on their music-recording activities, said commission spokesman Tilman Luder.
Luder added that a merger proposal in the music-recording, CD-recording and music-playing industry would always be monitored very carefully as these were markets where there were only a few players.
It is thought that the investigating team had suspended the probe because it needed more information about the ways in which the music-recording market has changed since US media giant Time Warner abandoned plans to merge its Warner Brothers recording unit with UK group EMI in October 2000.
