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Switzerland: Top telco pursues merger to compete with Google

By  |  June 17, 2014

Switzerland’s largest telecommunications carrier Swisscom has raised its bid to acquire advertising group PubliGroupe, reports say, as the telco looks to establish a new competitor against Google in the search industry.

According to reports, PubliGroupe has raised its offer to $548 million to purchase the company and acquire its directories, assets that would help Swisscom establish a directory business to rival Google’s search services.

While Swisscom announced the heightened bid, PubliGroupe released a separate statement announcing its rejection of a lesser acquisition bid proposed by publishing firm Tamedia.

Swisscom and Tamedia are both after PubliGroupe’s directories, reports say.

If a deal should be reached, the merger would remain subject to approval by the nation’s federal Competition Commission.

Full content: Bloomberg

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