Airbus, Thales, Leonardo in talks with EU over satellite merger, Reuters says

Airbus (EADSY), Thales (THLLY), and Leonardo (FINMF) have begun preliminary discussions with EU antitrust regulators over a potential merger of their satellite divisions, Bloomberg’s Tim Hepher reports, citing a source familiar with the matter. The source told Reuters that the companies have started talks with competition authorities in what is known as a “pre-notification phase,” and that this marked a very early part of the process and would not result in any material outcome until “well into next year.” A second source told Reuters that the French and Italian governments were broadly aligned over the project and that the European Commission had the single most decisive say on whether such a deal would be allowed.