Mexico's antitrust body clears Movistar sale to OXIO for $450M
Movistar keeps its brand and SIM cards for now. The deal still needs approval from the telecom regulator and must close within six months.
If you have a Movistar line in Mexico, nothing announced so far changes your brand, your number or your SIM card. Mexico's antitrust commission, the CNA, has cleared a consortium led by OXIO to buy Telefonica Mexico, according to El Informador. The price is $450 million, subject to the usual adjustments.
The regulator found the deal unlikely to harm competition. It is not closed yet. The parties have six months from when the CNA notifies its decision, extendable once by another six, and the purchase also needs approval from the telecom regulator, the CRT, according to Xataka Mexico. No record has been published showing that the CRT has ruled.
Xataka reported on Oct. 2 that the approval was not in a public ruling and had not been notified to the parties. That leaves unclear when the deadline starts to run.
What stays and what could change
OXIO, a New York-based cloud telecom company, said when it announced the deal on April 7 that it will keep the Movistar brand and its management team, according to the company's press release. The purchase covers all the shares of Pegaso PCS and Celular de Telefonia, which together make up Telefonica Mexico.
OXIO chief executive Nicolas Girard says the lines will move to a cloud platform and that no one will have to change SIM cards. That is a company plan, with no date and no service available. Meanwhile, the network keeps running on a wholesale agreement with AT&T, extended through 2030.
Sources give different customer counts: more than 20 million mobile lines, 20.1 million according to Expansion, and 21.7 million accesses in Telefonica's annual report. They do not measure the same thing. The terms of the clearance and the text of the ruling are still unknown.
