The West German Federal Kartel Office has nodded through Siemens AG’s proposed acquisition of 51% of the Nixdorf Computer AG voting shares and then merge Siemens Data Systems with Nixdorf to create a new Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG in which the Mnchener would hold at least 75%. Siemens had been concerned that it would be ordered to divest Nixdorf’s $300m-a-year PABX and telecommunications business, but will be permitted to keep it. With its US Rolm Corp acquisition and its 40% stake in GEC-Plessey Telecommunications Ltd, Siemens will control an enormous proportion of the European PABX market and a labour of Hercules in trying to rationalise and harmonise the disparate lines. The European Commission has not yet given its ruling on the merger, which will create a company with annual sales of some $7,100m.
