The Philippine Competition Commission is closely watching the planned takeover of Sky Cable Corp. by telecommunications firm PLDT Inc. to make sure that fair competition is observed.
PCC noted that the previous acquisition plans involving PLDT and Sky Cable were rescinded in 2020 and 2022 for various reasons, including PLDT’s own assessment of possible overlaps with Sky Cable in their products and services.
The competition body said that it is open for notification consultations with involved parties to ensure proper review of the transaction, and that market conditions and the modality of transaction might have differed over the past two-and-a-half years.
The PCC reiterated its mandate, which is to evaluate the effect of acquisitions in relevant markets and its effects on consumers, whether the transaction will result in fewer choices and lesser competition.
PLDT said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it intended to move on with the stalled acquisition of Sky Cable for P6.75 billion to further its share in the local telecommunications space.
PLDT plans to acquire 100 percent of Sky Cable’s total issued and outstanding capital stock consisting of 1.3 billion common shares for P4.90 apiece.
It said that specific to the buy-out, all cable operations of Sky Cable including the paid TV segment would cease to operate. ABS-CBN is the majority shareholder of Sky Cable.
ABS-CBN assured subscribers to the cable network that operations would continue until all regulatory approvals were finalized.
The TV network said it would strengthen content creation after the sale of its cable business.
