The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published its
decision that the partnership between Amazon.com, Inc and Anthropic does not
qualify for investigation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act
2002.
The partnership
involves a US$4 billion investment by Amazon in Anthropic, which is convertible
into non-voting equity in certain circumstances. The tie-up also involves a long-term
non-exclusive licensing of Anthropic's Foundation Models (FM) to Amazon for use
in Amazon services.
Amazon argued that it has not acquired material influence
over Anthropic as a result of the partnership.
The CMA noted that agreements to provide infrastructure to an
FM developer as well as distribution agreements between an FM developer and a
cloud service provider may result in an acquisition of material influence. This may arise where conditions are such that
the agreement creates a relationship of dependency such that it enables the
partner to influence materially the commercial policy of the FM developer.
The CMA also considered that the other categories of
agreements and rights set out in the description of the Amazon/Anthropic
partnership, including consultation and advice rights in relation to
significant Anthropic business issues, are, in principle, capable of
contributing to a finding of material influence.
However, the CMA did not need to reach a conclusion on
material influence as Anthropic's UK turnover does not exceed £70 million in
the UK, nor do the parties together account for a 25% or more share of supply
of any description of goods or services in the UK.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6710ba44e84ae1fd8592f52c/Full_text_decision.pdf
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