Brussels, 18/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has approved the creation of a joint venture for the management of the extranet financial information network between the British information group Reuters and Equant, which provides managed data and voice network services. The joint undertaking provisionally called "Proton", will provide services to companies for the diffusion, on private networks, of commercial information or operations with suppliers, agencies, partners, clients, etc. The extranet network allows information to be safe while using the Internet and the public telecommunications system.
The European Commission considers that the operation does not raise a competition problem as, it states in a press release; i) the new company will be faced by powerful competitors; ii) this is a new market which will develop in coming years; iii) it is hardly likely that the vertical link between Reuters and the joint venture will create problems concerning the overall market scenario.