EU to review small, data-rich M&AS: Anti-trust chief
BRUSSELS :European Union regulators are considering whether companies that gain access to valuable data via small merger and acquisition (M&A) deals should seek approval for these acquisitions to ensure that they will not hurt competition, the EU’S anti-trust chief said on Thursday.
European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s comments come alongside an increasing focus by regulators globally on privacy and the possibility that some companies may buy data-rich rivals to lock in users and squeeze out competitors.
Vestager will rule in the coming weeks on Microsoft’s $26.2 billion bid for social media company Linkedin Corp in its biggest-ever deal.
“A company might even buy up a rival just to get hold of its data, even though it hasn’t yet managed to turn that data into money,” Vestager said. “We are therefore exploring whether we need to start looking at mergers with valuable data involved, even though the company that owns it doesn’t have a large turnover.”
EU merger rules currently apply to mergers where the annual turnover of the com bined businesses exceeds speci fied thresholds in terms of global and European sales.
The European Commission plans to seek feedback from the public and interested parties before making any decision.
“We hope to start a public consultation very soon on should we supplement, comple ment our merger thresholds which are now turnover thresh olds when it comes to data but also knowledge as such,” Vesta ger said, saying the subject would also include patents which are not covered for now