UK: Diebold’s Wincor Nixdorf $1.8 billion deal threatened by regulator

British anti-trust regulators have given US automatic teller machine maker Diebold until Aug. 26 to come up with ways to lessen the impact of its €1.7 billion takeover of German rival Wincor Nixdorf – or face an in-depth inquiry and months of uncertainty over the future of the deal.

In an announcement, Friday, the Competition and Markets Authority said both the US and German buyers supplied ATMs to banks and independent “deployers” together with related software and maintenance. But while the merger had been given the go ahead by a number of competition regulators in other countries, the situation in the UK could lead to a substantial lessening of competition of the money dispensing machines.

The CMA said that at present Duluth Ga.-based NCR is the only other credible competitor in the UK, and there are limited prospects of other companies entering the UK market in the near future.

“This merger would reduce the number of credible competitors in the market from three to two,” said Sheldon Mills, CMA senior director, in a statement. “Based on our initial investigation, this reduction in the number of credible bidders for the supply of ATMs could significantly reduce customers’ ability to obtain competitive bids.”

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