August 14 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's competition authority said that it has given the green light to consumer electronics retailer Ozone Entertainment to acquire 100% of local peer Pulsar.
The objective of the deal is to expand Ozone Entertainment's business towards the offline market through the existing network of Pulsar stores, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said in a notice on Tuesday.
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The acquisition will not affect the Bulgarian offline market, because Ozone Entertainment is currently operating only on the online market, while Pulsar's online sales contribute about 10% of its total sales. The effect of the deal on the online market will be insignificant, CPC said.
The combined share of Ozone Entertainment and Pulsar of the domestic market of computers, monitors, game consoles and software will not exceed 5%. According to the competition authority's methodology, a market share below 15% is not troubling in terms of possible harmful impact on competition.
CPC's decision can be appealed by interested parties before the Sofia Administrative Court within 14 days after its publication.
Ozone Entertainment's revenue jumped to 10.6 million levs ($6.0 million/5.4 million euro) in 2017 from 5.9 million levs in the previous year, according to the company's most recent financial statement published in the commercial register.
Pulsar's posted a revenue 9.6 million levs in 2017, up from 8.5 million levs in the previous year.
Ozone Entertainment is the operator of the ozone.bg online shop, which offers consumer electronics, computer games and consoles, books, etc.
Pulsar is a retailer of electronic devices, computer games, accessories.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)