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Just as soon as news was released that Future Publishing’s £90+ million bid for rivals Highbury had been referred to the Competition Commission, the offer was withdrawn.
The Office of Fair Trading released a statement, saying: “Concerns that the combination of the largest supplier of computer games magazines in the UK with its largest competitor may be expected to lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the UK.” Pretty open and shut, no?
Well, obviously that’s not the case according to Future, as a statement released by them said: “Future plc believes that it would not be in the interests of Future plc’s shareholders to pursue further a possible acquisition of the issued ordinary share capital of Highbury. Future plc will accordingly approach the Competition Commission to seek a cancellation of the reference.”
Statements – aren’t they ace?
It does seem particularly convenient that the bid was dropped as soon as it was to be sent for review by the Competition Commission, but we’re not going to argue with released statements now, are we.
We just hope Highbury can sort something out for their long-suffering staff, who have no idea what’s going on. Ever. We’ll have to see what the Future holds*.
*This joke was shamelessly ripped off.
