Press Release: Mergers: Commission clears creation of two joint ventures between Alcatel Space and Alenia Spazio, subject to conditions

The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the creation of two joint ventures resulting from the French electronics company Alcatel merging its space activities with those of Alenia Spazio and Telespazio, part of the Italian Defence and engineering company Finmeccanica. The Commission's review highlighted serious concerns for certain satellite subsystems (Telemetry Tracking & Control or 'TTC' and radar altimeters), but Alcatel and Alenia were able to address these concerns by offering a license for both subsystems, in addition to agreeing to price monitoring for TTCs.