Ambit Microsystems chairman Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) plan to branch out into the nation’s telecommunications service market suffered another setback yesterday, as the National Communications Commission (NCC) again rejected an application for a merger with Asia-Pacific Telecom.
In January, the commission denied the merger because APT did not provide additional information about its strategic partnership deal with Taiwan Mobile.
NCC spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said that Taiwan Mobile had raised its stake in Ambit, acquiring 14.99 percent of Ambit’s shares, and the merger of Asia-Pacific Telecom and Ambit would lead to Taiwan Mobile owning 3.45 percent of the shares in the post-merger firm.
According to the Telecommunications Act (電信法), Taiwan Mobile should file an additional application regarding its investment in the new company, which must be approved by the commission as well.
Separately, both Taiwan Mobile and Asia-Pacific Telecom must submit plans to address breaches of telecoms regulations, with the two firms sharing a core network under a roaming agreement, the commission said.
The commission ruled that the partnership does not meet the definition of a roaming agreement.
Yu said that the commission would review the merger only after it receives all three documents.
Earlier this year, both Asia-Pacific Telecom and Ambit moved the date of the merger from the end of June to the end of December.
Asia-Pacific Telecom said it would file a merger application as soon as possible after examining the commission’s requests, adding that it will quickly submit a plan to address the issue of its use of the core network.
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