Verdicts handed down in Germany and the U.S.

Germany's Federal Cartel Office has denied Liberty Media's proposed acquisition of six regional cable tv companies from Deutsche Telekom AG. Liberty Media, which holds interests in Discovery, Court TV, Encore and STARZ!, bid US$4.8 billion, but wasn't willing to upgrade the cable network to carry telephone and internet access as fast as the Cartel Office wished. This was considered an important aspect of the deal, as the upgrades would have helped create greater competition in those areas. In the end, the Cartel Office argued that the acquisition, which would have made Liberty Media the largest cable operator in Europe, ultimately worsened the outlook for competition.