Big Tech's acquihire deals face regulatory scrutiny, outgoing EU antitrust official says
Acquihires, in which Big Tech hires start-ups' founders and senior managers rather than acquire the companies, have been viewed by antitrust regulators as an attempt to evade merger rules.
"It is important to preserve effective competition," Olivier Guersent, the director general at the competition unit, told Reuters in an interview earlier this week and ahead of his retirement on Thursday after a 33-year career tackling antitrust, cartels and financial services.
He said the Commission was pushing national agencies with call-in powers to act. Such powers, enjoyed by Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Slovenia, Lithuania and Latvia, allow them to refer below-EU threshold mergers to the EU enforcer.
"So we need to be patient and have enough member states that have call-in provisions and use them. But we are working on it. Within the ECN, we are actively encouraging it to do so," Guersent said. The European Competition Network is a forum for cooperation between the Commission and national regulators.
Guersent said acquihires can be considered a merger as staff are part of a company's assets.
Instances include Microsoft's (MSFT.O), opens new tab $650 million deal to hire most of AI start-up Inflection's staff, including its co-founders and Google's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab poaching of employees from chatbot startup Character.AI, both last year.
Last month Google hired staff members from AI code generation startup Windsurf.
Amazon hired AI firm Adept's co-founders and some of its team in June last year, while Meta poached data-labelling startup Scale AI's CEO in June after taking a multi-billion dollar stake.
Guersent, who spearheaded the EU's landmark Digital Markets Act that aims to curb Big Tech's power, said the results were encouraging.
"It made a difference in fields in which decades of antitrust enforcement have not managed to make a difference," he said.
"Did it change everything as much as we would have liked? Probably not. So that's why success is always relative," he said, contrasting Apple's changes to its closed ecosystem with Meta's pushback.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Martin Lewis reveals who is due for car finance compensation - and how much they'll get
Martin Lewis says motorists who were mis-sold car finance are likely to receive "hundreds, not thousands of pounds" - with regulators launching a consultation on a new compensation scheme. The founder of believes it is "very likely" that about 40% of Britons who entered personal contact purchase or hire purchase agreements between 2007 and 2021 will be eligible for payouts. "Discretionary commission arrangements" saw brokers and dealers charge higher levels of interest so they could receive more commission, without telling consumers. Speaking to Sky News Radio's Faye Rowlands, Lewis said: "Very rarely will it be thousands of pounds unless you have more than one car finance deal. "So up to about a maximum of £950 per car finance deal where you are due compensation." Lewis explained that consumers who believe they may have been affected should check whether they had a discretionary commission arrangement by writing to their car finance company. However, the personal finance guru warned against using a claims firm. "They're hardly going to do anything for you and you might get the money paid to you automatically anyway, in which case you're giving them 30% for nothing," he added. 1:13 Yesterday, the Financial Conduct Authority said its review of the past use of motor finance "has shown that many firms were not complying with the law or our disclosure rules that were in force when they sold loans to consumers". The FCA's statement added that those affected "should be appropriately compensated in an orderly, consistent and efficient way". Lewis told Sky News that the consultation will launch in October - and will take six weeks. "We expect payouts to come in 2026, assuming this will happen and it's very likely to happen," he said. "As for exactly how will work, it hasn't decided yet. Firms will have to contact people, although there is an issue about them having destroyed some of the data for older claims." He believes claims will either be paid automatically - or affected consumers will need to opt in and apply to get compensation back. What motorists should do next The FCA says you may be affected if you bought a car under a finance scheme, including hire purchase agreements, before 28 January 2021. Anyone who has already complained does not need to do anything. The authority added: "Consumers concerned that they were not told about commission, and who think they may have paid too much for the finance, should complain now". Its website advises drivers to complain to their finance provider first. If you're unhappy with the response, you can then contact the Financial Ombudsman. Any compensation scheme will be easy to participate in, without drivers needing to use a claims management company or law firm. The FCA has warned motorists that doing so could end up costing you 30% of any compensation in fees. The FCA estimates the cost of any scheme - including compensation and administrative costs - to be no lower than £9bn. But in a video on X, Lewis said that millions of people are likely to be due a share of up to £18bn.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Singapore's GIC to take 25% stake in Spanish broadband venture, FT reports
Aug 4 (Reuters) - Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC is set to take a 25% stake in a fibre optic broadband venture between MasOrange and Vodafone Spain, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. GIC's investment in the company will be announced as soon as Monday, the report said, adding that its stake would be worth about 1.4 billion euros ($1.6 billion). The deal comes after Zegona Communications (ZEG.L), opens new tab unit Vodafone Spain agreed in January to create the new fibre network company in Spain with MasOrange, with London-listed Zegona expected to hold 10% of the venture. The parties at the time of the announcement of the deal were also looking for an investor for the new venture who was expected to hold 40% of the business. Reuters could not immediately verify the FT report. GIC, Vodafone Spain, Zegona and MasOrange did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Zegona acquired Vodafone Spain in a 5 billion euro deal last year, as part of Vodafone Group's (VOD.L), opens new tab exit from its Spanish operations. ($1 = 0.8634 euros)
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Liz Truss accuses Kemi Badenoch of not telling the truth about Tory failures as former PM hits back at Conservative leader over her mini-budget criticism
Liz Truss has accused Kemi Badenoch of 'repeating spurious narratives' rather than telling the truth about Tory failures. The former prime minister said she believes the Tory Party will be in 'serious trouble' unless it starts to admit failures over the economy and human rights during its last spell in government. It follows Mrs Badenoch's remarks that Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves were making 'even bigger mistakes' than Ms Truss had in her mini-Budget in September 2022 – a month before she quit No 10. 'It is disappointing that instead of serious thinking like this, Kemi Badenoch is instead repeating spurious narratives,' Ms Truss wrote in the Telegraph. 'I suspect she is doing this to divert from the real failures of 14 years of Conservative government in which her supporters are particularly implicated.' She described as 'a fatal mistake' the decision not to repeal Labour legislation including the Human Rights Act, accusing modernisers of wanting to be 'heirs to Blair'. She also took aim at Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings, saying that 'draconian lockdowns' caused huge damage, adding that the economy 'was wrecked with profligate Covid spending' by then chancellor Rishi Sunak. The war of words risks sparking a row within the party, Ms Truss added that the 'huge increase in immigration has been a disaster'. Mrs Badenoch previously kept criticisms of Ms Truss private, telling her shadow cabinet in January that it would be helpful if her predecessor made fewer interventions. But on Saturday she made her first major public criticism of the ex-Tory prime minister, saying Labour had not learnt the lessons of the mini-budget. She said the bond markets are 'increasingly jittery about the levels of borrowing today', and warned that the 'mismanagement' of the economy will have 'real consequences' on workers. Writing in The Telegraph, she said: 'For all their mocking of Liz Truss, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have not learnt the lessons of the mini-budget and are making even bigger mistakes. 'They continue to borrow more and more, unable and unwilling to make the spending cuts needed to balance the books.' Ms Truss hit back at the comments, saying it was Mrs Badenoch who had not learned the lessons of the mini-budget. She tweeted: 'Kemi has not learned the lessons of the Mini Budget, which is that when Conservative MPs fail to back tax cuts, fracking and welfare restraint, they get booted out of office. 'The Bank of England has since admitted that two thirds of the market movement in 2022 was down to their failure to regulate pensions properly. 'Kemi Badenoch needs to do the work and actually analyse what happened in 2022 and hold the Bank of England to account.' The weeks following Ms Truss's mini-budget saw adverse market reaction and mortgage costs soar. She was ejected from office after just 49 days - becoming Britain's shortest-serving prime minister. Since entering office, Labour has been highly critical of Ms Truss's handling of the economy. Ms Truss hit back at the comments, saying it was Mrs Badenoch who had not learned the lessons of the mini-budget. At the start of this year, the ex-PM's lawyers sent a letter to No10 insisting Sir Keir's claim that she 'crashed the economy' is defamatory. But Downing Street said the PM would not soften his language about Ms Truss's premiership. Sir Keir's official spokesman said at the time: 'There's only so much I can talk about previous administrations, but you've got the Prime Minister's language which he absolutely stands by in relation to the previous government's record, and you don't have to take it from the Prime Minister.
