CEE M&A Monitor
Event venues · arenas Lithuania Deal abandoned 6 Oct 2026

Tesonet Global drops plan to buy Vilnius arena operator Star Dome after the Lithuanian regulator's preliminary objections

On 6 October 2026 the Lithuanian Competition Council announced that it had terminated its review of the concentration in which Tesonet Global, which operates the arena in Kaunas, intended to acquire 99.99% of the shares of Star Dome, which operates an arena in Vilnius, and take sole control of it. The parties abandoned the deal. The notification was received on 7 April 2026. The Council's experts surveyed event organisers, venue operators, ticket distributors and Vilnius City Municipality. On 16 September 2026 they sent the parties a preliminary assessment concluding that the deal would harm competition in the market for renting indoor venues for events: the merged company would hold more than 70% of the market for indoor venues for events of over 5,000 spectators, with the remaining competitors significantly smaller, while in the market for venues for events of over 8,000 spectators the two parties are the only competitors. Tesonet Global submitted additional explanations, but the experts did not change their preliminary conclusions. On 2 October 2026 the Council received Tesonet Global's request stating that the companies were abandoning the plan, and it terminated the review. The decision cannot be appealed.

Our take The deal failed on market definition. Defined as "event venues", the market looks broad; defined by capacity, it is two buildings — above 8,000 seats the parties were each other's only competitor. The timeline is typical for a deal with a problem: about five months from filing to the preliminary objections, then roughly two weeks to withdraw. For a buyer in any market where two or three large assets do the same job, the regulator will look at who can host the same event or serve the same customer, not at the sector as a whole — and that question is best answered before signing.
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