Final Word from Monday, December 7, 2015
If the Islamic State or the Chinese army were buying E15 business daily from Mladá fronta, would Chair Petr Rafaj of the ÚOHS antitrust office tell us? Or would he say the true ownership structure is a commercial secret, as he did when he refused to reveal who was buying the RPG/OKD apartments from Zdeněk Bakala? Rafaj's office announced last week that Gloomar CZ, which applied to buy some of Mladá fronta's assets, belongs to the same business group as Czech News Center. How does Rafaj know this? According to the commercial registry, Gloomar CZ is owned by Euromater SE, which in turn is owned by Esturgeon Enterprises Ltd. of Cyprus. The trail ends there, as far as public records are concerned, yet Euromater now says that Gloomar CZ was bought by Czech Media Invest and renamed CN Invest before the antitrust application was filed. How can Rafaj approve a sale when not even he knows who the buyer is? [Czech Republic Ringier Daniel Křetínský Blesk]
Glossary of difficult words
antitrust - of or relating to legislation preventing or controlling trusts or other monopolies, with the intention of promoting competition in business.