Agora cleared by regulatory authority to buy Proszynski

The Competition and Consumer Office (UOKiK) has cleared Agora to buy shares in the Proszynski i S-ka publishing house. According to UOKiK the takeover should have no negative influence on the publishing market, as the two companies offer different products. Specialists see the transaction as another step in a series of mergers in the media industry in which the publisher of Gazeta Wyborcza will spend about zl. 1.5 billion. The exact value of the transaction will be announced as soon as the final agreement is signed but Andrzej Szymanski, an analyst from BIG BG brokerage house, has estimated the deal to be worth about zl. 100 million. Apart from the printed media, Agora's next major goal is to acquire the Polsat television station, which will be a zl. 1 billion investment, says Szymanski. The fast developing company now has foreign investments which stand at $30 million. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 7) K.S.