Mergers: Commission approves joint venture between Hearst and Advance Publications

The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed creation of a joint venture between Hearst Publishing Services Inc. (belonging to The Hearst Corporation) and Advance Publications Inc., both of the US. Hearst's activities include newspapers, magazines, cable television, TV stations, credit rating services, medical information services and internet sites. Advance Publications' activities include newspapers, magazines, internet sites, cable television, and development of film, television and digital video programming. The joint venture will provide procurement, circulation management and back-office services relating to the publishing of print magazines, including digital editions, to its parents and to third parties outside the European Economic Area (EEA). The Commission concluded that the proposed joint venture would raise no competition concerns, since it would have no actual or foreseen activities within the EEA. The transaction was examined under the simplified merger review procedure. More information is available on the Commission's competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.7999.