Australian betting firms Tatts and Tabcorp have officially announced that they are in merger talks, which would consolidate operations and initiate large cost-savings measures.
The announcement comes as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued comment on the potential merger, saying they stand ready to review the deal and would consider approval in a timely manner. It is thought that a merger between the groups could save between A$80 to A$100 million annually, but could also cost employees jobs.
In the announcement of the talks, the companies requested a halt in trading on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Commenting on the talks, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission Chairman Rod Sims said, "'Clearly there's a lot of overlap between what Tatts and Tabcorp do," Sims said, adding: "I probably don't know the industry well enough to know the extent of it. So on the overlap issue there's major concern."
"We have to weigh up how much that new online competition is sufficient to constrain this new merged entity. That's going to depend on breaking into certain markets. There's markets for online gambling, there's markets for offline gambling, there's markets for clubs who get involved in certain activity. So it's quite a detailed matter, and it's only just come in this morning."
Comments
Obviously there's going to be some reconstructions on the Australian gambling market between two of the leading brands there but I'm sorry t see that some employees will loose their jobs because of that.