Switzerland: Competition regulator probes Tamedia’s purchase

Switzerland’s competition regulator will investigate Tamedia’s deal to buy South African-owned Ricardo because it could lead to a dominant position in the market for classified advertisements for jobs, it said on Tuesday.

Tamedia, which publishes Swiss national newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, said in February it would buy Ricardo from South African media company Naspers for 240 million Swiss francs ($259 million), pending regulatory approval.

Tamedia said at the time it was seeking to strengthen its position in the Swiss online market through Ricardo, which operates online marketplace ricardo.ch, car platform autoricardo.ch and general classifieds website olx.ch.

“There are indications that this acquisition will create or strengthen a dominant position in the field of job-classifieds,” Switzerland’s WEKO watchdog said in a statement, adding it would also look into the implications of the deal for online car platforms in German-speaking regions of the country.

Full content: Reuters

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