Competition authority approves SRMG’s acquisition of 51% stake in Thmanyah Publishing

Logo of General Authority for Competition

The General Authority for Competition (GAC) announced that it has no objection to Saudi Research and Media Group’s (SRMG) acquisition of a 51% stake in Thmanyah Company for Publishing and Distribution.

The authority stated that all parties work in the media and entertainment sector, and thus the commodity dimension of this deal was determined based on the intersecting services between the parties of this deal, which is the provision of podcast service to clients.

Accordingly, the authority studied the podcast market to determine whether there are concerns about competition or not.

The authority's study concluded that concerns are not expected that might affect competition in Saudi Arabia, since the market share of the parties is small and does not constitute any competition concerns.

The podcast market is easy to enter and exit, since all members of the community can create their own podcast. In conclusion, the authority added that the podcast market is a large and diversified one, with a large number of competitors.

SRMG's subsidiary, Arab Media Co., signed, on July 13, an interest purchase agreement with Abdulrahman Ali Abumalih, Aseel Salah Baabdullah and Meem Company for Research and Studies, to acquire 51% of stake in Thmanyah Company for Publishing and Distribution for SAR 33.31 million, according to Argaam's data.