What's going on?

Telecoms companies often boost their earnings by merging with one another�� growing in size while cutting costs. But on Tuesday, Sunrise�s $6 billion plan to buy rival Liberty Global�s Swiss cable network was cut short.

What does this mean?

Sunrise announced the Liberty deal back in February. To cover the costs, it would�ve had to reorganize its existing debts, as well as sell new shares in order to raise a third more than its current value. Sunrise had hoped that �synergies� � which come from cutting duplicate costs across the newly combined business � would boost its profits and enable it to repay its debts over time. But investors weren�t convinced � particularly after German telecoms company Freenet, which owns a quarter of Sunrise�s shares, made its disapproval known. And so, lacking support, Sunrise announced it had cut off communication with Liberty.

Why should I care?

For markets: When a plan doesn�t come together.

The sunset of Sunrise�s deal wasn�t a massive surprise to investors, but the fact European competition regulators approved the deal in the first place may have been. Regulators have form in halting potential European deals for fear a too-dominant company will force customers to pay higher prices for a worse service (tweet this). But investors might�ve opposed the move because Sunrise would�ve had stiff competition from market-leader Swisscom, potentially making cost-cutting more difficult. And that might explain why the deal�s collapse saw Sunrise�s shares, er, rise 3% on Tuesday.

Zooming out: Another disrupted deal.

In August, online food delivery company Just Eat agreed to merge with Dutch rival Takeaway.com, but a spanner was thrown into those works on Tuesday too. Prosus � a newly listed European internet conglomerate � made a higher takeover offer for Just Eat. And while Just Eat rejected it, the British company�s stock price shot up 25% � higher than the offer price � likely as investors anticipated the start of a bidding war.