14.10.2006   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 248/23

Prior notification of a concentration

(Case COMP/M.4303 — Thales/Finmeccanica/AAS and Telespazio)

(2006/C 248/11)

(Text with EEA relevance)

1.

On 6 October 2006, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which the undertaking Thales S.A. (‘Thales’, France) and Finmeccanica Societa per Azioni (‘Finmeccanica’, Italy) acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Council Regulation joint control of the undertakings Alcatel Alenia Space SAS (‘AAS’, France) and Telespazio Holding srl (‘Telespazio’, Italy) by way of purchase of shares in two existing joint ventures to which additional assets are contributed.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

—

for Thales: critical information systems for defense, aerospace, transport and civil security applications;

—

for Finmeccanica: diversified engineering group active in aerospace, defense systems, energy, communications, transportation and automation;

—

for AAS: design, manufacture and supply of ground and space systems, including satellites and subsystems and equipments;

—

for Telespazio: provision of services and end-user applications using or related to satellite-based solutions.

3.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of Regulation (EC) No 139/2004. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.

4.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (fax No (32-2) 296 43 01 or 296 72 44) or by post, under reference number COMP/M.4303 — Thales/Finmeccanica/AAS and Telespazio, to the following address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

J-70

B-1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

(1)  OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1.