IPC takeover gets green light

NEWS AOL Time Warner's £1.15bn purchase of leading UK magazine publisher IPC has been approved by the European Commission. In a statement on Friday, the Commission - which had launched a preliminary investigation into the acquisition to examine competition concerns - said whichever way the markets were defined the deal would not pose competition problems. The investigation found the buy did not create or strengthen a dominant position in magazine readership or advertising. It also found it was unlikely the deal would stop IPC's rivals making deals with AOL for online offerings. This was despite the fact IPC magazines are now free to link to AOL's ISP services. IPC seriously reduced its internet offerings in the wake of AOL's July purchase, including the culling of the online version of men's magazine Loaded.