Salesforce asks regulators to block LinkedIn deal

Salesforce.com Inc. said it would press regulators in the U.S. and Europe to block Microsoft Corp.’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn Corp., arguing the deal would hurt competition by giving its businesssoftware rival too much control over the social-networking company’s vast pool of data.

Salesforce’s public broadside against the deal on Thursday came three months after it lost a bidding war for LinkedIn to Microsoft. Both companies’ interest in LinkedIn centers on data generated by its members, who typically maintain career résumés on the site. LinkedIn claims 450 million members in more than 200 countries, including 106 million monthly active uses.

Burke Norton, Salesforce’s chief legal officer, said owning LinkedIn would give Microsoft an unfair competitive advantage because it could block rivals’ access to the data on its membership. He said the deal also raises “data privacy issues” that Salesforce thinks U.S. and European Union authorities should scrutinize.

Microsoft responded by pointing out that the deal had already passed regulatory muster in some countries, and that it is Salesforce, not Microsoft, that dominates the market for software that handles customer relationship management, or CRM—a market in which LinkedIn’s data may help Microsoft compete against Salesforce.

“We’re committed to continuing to work to bring price competition to a CRM market in which Salesforce is the dominant participant charging customers higher prices today,” Microsoft’s chief legal officer Brad Smith said.

Antitrust issues arising from the acquisition of immense data sets have been raised in technology mergers in both the EU and the U.S., but no merger has been derailed on those grounds, said Michael Carrier, a Rutgers Law School professor who specializes in antitrust issues. European regulators examined the competitive and privacy implications of Google’s buy of DoubleClick and Facebook Inc.’s purchase of WhatsApp, and approved them.