Microsoft plans to acquire the largest professional
networking business LinkedIn for US$26.2 billion representing the largest
acquisition in its history.
Merger clearance is being sought in the USA, Canada and EU
and a few other antitrust regimes, which has prompted commentators to speculate
on the prospects for clearance.
There do not seem to be any significant horizontal overlaps. Microsoft is not a major social media player
and LinkedIn is not a provider of operating systems or business software. Nor do there seem to be any obvious vertical
issues. You don’t need Windows to create
an online social network and LinkedIn’s network is not a critical input for
competitors to Microsoft’s software business.
The transaction has been hailed as a merger of
complements. LinkedIn gives Microsoft access
to data in relation to a readymade network of users for Microsoft’s cloud-interoperable
programs. You can see how the deal would
make Microsoft’s products more useful to the LinkedIn community because they
would be able to share them with their connections. It could serve as a counterbalance to cloud-based
programs such as Google Docs that can benefit from an established network of
users.
So, is there an antitrust problem if Microsoft acquires
LinkedIn information on who you are connected with? An obvious point is that merely having access
to personal data - even vast amounts of it - is not to be equated with economic
market power. However, this has not
stopped regulators on both sides of the Atlantic venturing theories on the
competition law implications of ‘Big data’ and whether existing legal tools including
merger control are adequate to address new situations. The Microsoft-LinkedIn tie-up is of relatively
limited interest when approached through the traditional antitrust toolkit. It is hoped that the merger control
authorities keep those principles firmly in sight when looking at the data
aspects.
You're partially right when you're telling than Microsoft isn 't a major social network...but being creative and watching out of the Box, I could just state for myself: Microsoft Inc, is = HotMail/OutLook, Skype and Bing.
ReplyDeleteWe all know, that the new stake in Digital Networking is to reintegrated at the email, social network, instant message service, call over ip services and search engine. The main reason is that the two sided market are taking force and powering incomes using ads, adwords and statistics data resulting from the aggregation of the Big Data.
You've to consider LinkedIn as one of the most successful niche social network. One of the few getting only correct and accurate data with real names and real informations (in comparison of FB, G+...).
And therefore consider the Big Data in the Digital Economy for what it is taking into consideration the possibilities for a player to gain power at the global level.
Here in the EU, we have to get the big picture being sure that the merger would not fall under 101 or 102 by creating player who's a blue to be, on the medium term, too much vertically integrated and that would be able to enjoy lonely its data.
Those are only thoughts, and I would be very happy to discuss it with you.