(Telecompaper) The European Commission will announce its intention to carry out an in-depth investigation of Telefonica Germany's proposed EUR 8.6 billion takeover of E-Plus next week, reports Reuters, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The EC will thus reject a request by Germany's Federal Cartel Office that the case be referred to the German competition authority for investigation. Telefonica announced its proposed takeover of KPN's German mobile unit E-Plus in July, a deal that would create the largest operator in Germany, ahead of Deutsche Telecom and Vodafone Germany. At the end of October the Spanish group applied to the European Commission for clearance of the merger.