Ex-post Analysis of the TeliaSonera-Chess 2005 Merger

We provide an ex-post analysis of the 2005 TeliaSonera-Chess merger in the Norwegian mobile telecommunication market. Applying a difference-in-difference approach and a synthetic control group method we find little evidence of price increase in the Norwegian mobile telecom market after the merger. Possible explanations for these findings include that Chess was a small player in the market without its own physical network, with a market share of 8% at the time of the merger and no spectrum license, and that by taking Chess on board moving it from Telenor’s network, TeliaSonera could better exploit potential economies of scale related to the operation of its physical network and spectrum.