TPG Telecom and Vodafone Hutchison Australia have been given the...

TPG Telecom and Vodafone Hutchison Australia have been given the green light to merge, after the Federal Court overruled the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's decision to block the merger.
In a major blow to ACCC chairman Rod Sims, Justice John Middleton ruled on Thursday that the $15 billion merger would not substantially lessen competition in the mobile market, and there was therefore no legal basis to block the deal. The ACCC has 28 days to lodge an appeal.
The decision clears the way for the creation of a $15 billion telco giant to challenge the dominance of the two biggest players Telstra and Optus. Vodafone Hutchison Australia chief executive Inaki Berroeta will take the CEO role, while TPG boss and founder, billionaire David Teoh, will be non-executive chairman.
It will be a step back for the intensely private Mr Teoh, who has built a reputation over four decades as one of Australia's most successful entrepreneurs.
The merger must now get the green light from the Foreign Investment Review Board and a US regulator, and is unlikely to be completed before the middle of the year. If the ACCC appeals, the companies expect the process to be prolonged for at least another six months.

Like Telstra and Optus, the merged company, which will be called TPG and listed on the ASX, will own both fixed line infrastructure and a network of mobile towers. It will compete in every part of the market, including residential fixed line, mobile, enterprise and NBN resale.
Outside the merger, Vodafone has mobile infrastructure but no fibre, while TPG has fixed line but no mobile, meaning the two firms are not significant competitors.
When they announced the deal 18 months ago in August 2018, TPG and Vodafone had expected this lack of competition meant ACCC would have no problem with the merger.
But at the time of the announcement TPG was in the process of building a small 4G mobile network, and had already announced some extremely competitive mobile offers. In December 2018 the ACCC announced it was concerned that the merger would prevent TPG bringing these competitive offers to market, and said it needed more time to consider the deal.
The next month, TPG executive chairman David Teoh announced the TPG board had decided to scrap the build, saying the government's decision to ban Huawei from supplying 5G networks meant TPG had no upgrade path to 5G. TPG was building its network exclusively with cheap Huawei equipment.
TPG had expected this to end the ACCC's concerns, but in May Mr Sims announced he was blocking the merger, in a decision that took corporate Australia by surprise. It was based on the assumption that, outside a merger, TPG was highly likely to revive its abandoned mobile network.
This assumption was painstakingly examined in the three week trial in September.
From AFR