Fusões e aquisições no setor de telecomunicações: características e enfoque regulatório

Abstract

The telecommunications sector has, since the mid-90s, been the focus of an intensive process of mergers and acquisitions driven by a number of technological factors and by policies to encourage competition and the opening of the market. While these processes have accounted for quite a substantial portion of trade and investment flows, they have also been at the center of growing attention from the regulatory authorities and defense- of-competition bodies aimed at avoiding detrimental situations for consumers and abuse of power in markets still undergoing transition from monopoly structures toward more competition. This study has the aim of examining the characteristics of merger and acquisitions in the telecommunications sector, starting from an analysis of the market and technological reasons for this process. It also analyzes the behavior of regulatory authorities in the United States and the European Union. This analysis is useful in examining regulatory problems in Brazil, where major global companies are involved in these processes and where there are prospects of consolidation in the telecommunications sector, a process which will require careful monitoring by Brazil’s regulators