European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, has given the green light for the acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft. The takeover may take place under a number of conditions that must ensure that competition remains possible.
According to the research conducted by the European Commission, the services of Microsoft and LinkedIn are mainly related to each other. Only with regard to online advertisements is there overlap between the companies. As the combined market share of the companies in that market is very small, the Commission sees no objection to this.
The Commission was initially concerned that Microsoft would foreclose competitors by denying them access to the LinkedIn database. However, according to the Commission’s investigation, such access to the full database is not necessary to compete in the CRM software market. According to the research, Microsoft is a small player in the customer relationship management market, in which Salesforce is the undisputed market leader and major competitors such as Oracle and SAP are also active.
Microsoft has made a number of commitments and the acquisition may go ahead if the company sticks to them for the next five years. Computer builders are not required to install LinkedIn on systems and users should always be able to remove any software themselves. Competitive social networks targeting the professional market should be able to access Microsoft’s Office suite on an equal level as they do today, through the Office add-in program. Microsoft also gives competing services access to Microsoft Graph, a gateway for software developers.
In June, Microsoft and LinkedIn reached an agreement on the acquisition. The Windows maker has 26.2 billion dollars for the business social network. Other regulatory authorities worldwide have previously agreed to the acquisition. Microsoft says the deal will be finalized in the coming days.