Virgin
Advising Virgin on the acquisition by BSkyB of a 17.9 per cent stake in ITV. Our client wished to oppose the acquisition.
Although the size of BSkyB's shareholding was below the level that would normally be considered to confer any form of control, we successfully argued that the facts of the case were such that BSkyB did have "material influence" over ITV. This meant that the UK competition authorities had jurisdiction to investigate the deal.
Another feature of the case was that we successfully argued that the case merited the Secretary of State to intervene in the matter on the basis of "media public interest" - the first (and to date only) time such an intervention has been made.