การควบรวมกิจการโทรทัศน์เข้าข่ายการโอนสิทธิเฉพาะตัวของผู้รับใบอนุญาตจริงหรือ

Abstract

Merger and Acquisitions (M&A) is one of the methods to manage effective business operations. However, the Broadcasting Business Act stipulates that broadcasting operators must operate business by themselves and that broadcasting licenses are non transferrable. This leads to debate whether merger and acquisition by total buyout of a license holder or merger with a license holder to create a new entity will be considered as “transfer of license”. This article studies various types of mergers and acquisitions including relevant laws and regulations and while the laws prohibit transfer of license, they do not forbid transfer of shares from one entity to another nor do they disallow changing of shareholding structure. Therefore, a license holder can change its shareholding structure by way of merger and acquisition which does not construed as transfer of license. Nevertheless, such merger and acquisition shall not violate relevant laws and regulations which will be discussed in more detail.