Brussels, 26/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 26 November, the European Commission approved the creation of a joint venture between EMP, the wireless platform business of Ericsson of Sweden, and ST-NXP, the wireless semiconductors business of STMicroelectronics of the Netherlands. The joint venture will be active worldwide in the supply of wireless platforms for mobile handsets as well as the supply of semiconductors for mobile telecommunications. The Commission investigation found only marginal horizontal overlaps between the activities of EMP and ST-NXP in the overall market for wireless platforms. The parties are active on vertically-related markets, and the Commission acknowledged that the ST-NXP semi-conductors could be used by EMP in its provision of platform services. There are, however, sufficient numbers of suppliers on the semi-conductors market that the operation would not restrict sales. The Commission further said that the market dynamic would not be significantly altered, since ST-NXP was already the preferred supplier of EMP before the proposed transaction. (C.D./transl.rt)