Completed acquisition by Acxiom Corporation of Consodata SA

Affected market: Direct marketing

No. ME/1662/04

The OFT's decision on reference under section 22 given on 20 May 2004

Please note that the full text of the decision can be downloaded by using the link on the right . What follows are extracts regarding the parties, the transaction, jurisdiction, assessment and decision.

PARTIES

Acxiom Corporation (Acxiom) is a multinational firm with operations in the US, UK, France, Australia and Japan.  Acxiom is a supplier of data management solutions for companies worldwide.  Acxiom's worldwide turnover in the year ending 31 March 2003 was approximately £571.46 million, of which £60.5 million was attributed to the UK.

Consodata SA (Consodata) collects sells and analyses consumer data with an organisation based in the UK, France, Germany and Spain.  The worldwide turnover of Consodata and its subsidiaries in 2002 was approximately £55 million, with £11.8 million turnover attributed to the UK.

TRANSACTION

On 31 March 2004, Acxiom acquired Consodata SA (consisting of companies based in England, France and Spain) for approximately $36.4m.

The transaction was notified to the OFT on 16 March 2004 and the administrative deadline expires on 17 May 2004.  A previous acquisition by Acxiom in the same sector (the acquisition of Claritas Europe Group) was cleared by the OFT on 11 March 2004.

JURISDICTION

As a result of this transaction Acxiom and Consodata have ceased to be distinct.  The parties overlap in the supply of Customer Relationship Management Services (CRM) and the share of supply test in section 23 of the Enterprise Act 2002 (the Act) is met.  A relevant merger situation has therefore been created.

ASSESSMENT

The merger qualifies on the share of supply test under the Act.  The appropriate frames of reference are taken to be the UK supply of data collection and sale (all data categories or lifestyle and other data categories), data analysis and database management services.

At a horizontal level, a number of competitors remain and the evidence suggests that the shares of supply and accretions to these are not problematic.   In addition, customers appear to have some negotiating strength and barriers to entry are generally low.

At a vertical level, a concern was raised that the merged entity will control the supply of data which is a necessary input for others in the supply chain.  Due to the lack of market power this does not appear to raise any competition issues.

Consequently, the OFT does not believe that it is or may be the case that the merger has resulted or may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within a market or markets in the United Kingdom.

DECISION

This merger will therefore not be referred to the Competition Commission under section 22(1) of the Act.

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