{"id":60874,"date":"2015-09-01T14:00:48","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T14:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=6f190f84a4e31a573f908b36514e0d97"},"modified":"2015-09-01T14:00:48","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T14:00:48","slug":"news-story-cma-to-consider-proposed-undertakings-for-bowling-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=60874","title":{"rendered":"News story: CMA to consider proposed undertakings for bowling merger"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Last month the Competition and Markets Authority (<abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>) announced its concerns that the proposed acquisition by The Original Bowling Company Ltd (<abbr title=\"The Original Bowling Company Ltd\">TOBC<\/abbr>) of <abbr title=\"Bowlplex Ltd\">Bowlplex<\/abbr> Ltd (<abbr title=\"Bowlplex Ltd\">Bowlplex<\/abbr>) may result in a substantial lessening of competition. The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr>\u2019s competition concerns focus on 6 areas where the companies both run ten-pin bowling facilities \u2013  Bristol, Bracknell, Cardiff, Dudley, Leeds\/Castleford and Glasgow.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> said that <abbr title=\"The Original Bowling Company Ltd\">TOBC<\/abbr> could avoid an in-depth phase 2 merger investigation if it offered an acceptable solution to address its concerns. As a result <abbr title=\"The Original Bowling Company Ltd\">TOBC<\/abbr> has offered to sell a ten-pin bowling centre in each of the 6 local areas identified. <\/p>\n<p>Under the proposed undertakings, <abbr title=\"The Original Bowling Company Ltd\">TOBC<\/abbr> must enter into agreements with proposed purchasers to sell these sites and the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> will need to approve the suitability of the purchaser as a credible competitor before it accepts the undertakings. <\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> has decided that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the proposed undertakings, or a modified version of them, might be accepted by the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> instead of a more detailed phase 2 merger investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> now has until 27 October 2015 to consider whether to ultimately accept the undertakings, or a modified version. It can extend this deadline if there are special reasons for doing so.<\/p>\n<p>As part of this consideration process, the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> will undertake a public consultation on whether the proposed undertakings, including the proposed purchaser or purchasers for the divestment sites, are sufficient to address the competition concerns. If the <abbr title=\"Competition and Markets Authority\">CMA<\/abbr> does not accept the undertakings, it will refer the acquisition for a phase 2 merger investigation.<\/p>\n<p>All information relating to the investigation is available on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/cma-cases\/the-original-bowling-company-bowlplex-merger-inquiry\">case page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Original Bowling Company has offered to sell 6 bowling alleys to address competition concerns triggered by its purchase of Bowlplex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}