Final no to the sales of search

The Norwegian Ministry of Government Administration and Reform has today announced to Aspiro that they find no grounds to pursue the Competition law, section 21 regarding the sales of the search business to Opplysningen.

Ministry announced on 17 April that they choose to follow the Competition Authority’s no to the merger, depending on the evaluation of section 21. The ministry today announced to Aspiro that it can not find such grounds, which means that the Competition Authority’s decision stands.

The sale included subsidiary Aspiro Søk AS with Aspiro’s two largest Norwegian short numbers for text based search services 1985 and 2100. Aspiro will continue to operate its services as before, while other possible alternatives are evaluated.

The Search business had revenues of about SEK 59 m in 2008 with an EBITDA of approximately SEK 43 m.