Brussels, 13/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has cleared the acquisition by the Italian telecommunication company Wind of certain assets of the Italian mobile phone operator Blu. The Commission has concluded that the transaction will not lead to the creation or strengthening of a dominant position in favour of Wind given to the presence on the Italian mobile phone market of much stronger competitors such as TIM and VodafoneOmnitel, which count for two thirds of the Italian mobile phone market. Wind and Blu are, respectively, the third and fourth mobile phone operators in Italy in terms of turnover and number of customers. Wind Telecomunicazioni is an Italian telecommunication company jointly controlled by Enel and France Télécom and Blu is an Italian mobile phone operator jointly controlled by Edizione Holding and British Telecom. EUROPE is able to reveal that Edizione Holding controls 42% of Blu's stock and had been obliged to sell its stake in Blu in oder to obtain the EU green light for the joint acquisition with Pirelli of Olivetti and Telecom Italia. The deal would have allowed it to control the Italian mobile telephone market by combining Blu's activities with those of TIM, a subsidiary of Telecom Italia. Last August the Commission set out criteria for the sale of Blu and approved the separate sale of its assets, given that no company had been found to take over the whole of the company. (See EUROPE 7 August p 2) and 22 September p 9).