Because the EU Antitrust will vivisect the Facebook-Kustomer operation
The European Commission will evaluate Facebook's proposed acquisition of Kustomer. All the details
Not so fast Mr Zuckerberg.
Facebook will have to get the go-ahead from the EU antitrust before it can complete the billion-dollar acquisition of Kustomer.
At the end of last November, Facebook announced the acquisition of the startup specializing in customer service platforms and chatbots.
But the European Commission is preparing to launch a review of the acquisition.
The EU Antitrust has in fact accepted the requests presented by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Holland, Portugal and Romania, to deal with the case. In reality, the transaction does not fall within the turnover thresholds set by the Merger Regulation and was therefore not notified to Brussels.
Mark Zuckerberg's group cannot finalize the acquisition until it has notified the transition and obtained clearance from the EU.
As TechCrunch noted, Facebook's acquisitions have generally gone under the radar of regulators, including those of Instagram and WhatsApp, until now.
All the details.
THE EU ANTITRUST LENS ON THE ACQUISITION OF KUSTOMER BY FACEBOOK
On Wednesday, the European Commission reported that it had opened an investigation into Facebook's proposed acquisition of Kustomer. The transaction could affect competition in the markets for "CRM software" and online display advertising services in the EU.
AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED IN AUSTRIA
Facebook had filed for clearance with the competition authority in Austria, where it meets the national threshold for merger notification. But the country has asked EU officials to take the case. Subsequently other states joined Austria's request for postponement.
Indeed, it is permissible for Member States to ask Brussels to examine a merger that does not have an EU dimension but affects trade within the single market and threatens to significantly affect competition in the territory of the Member States making the request. .
For its part, the Commission considers that the transaction meets the criteria defined by the rules, considering that it “could affect competition”.
WHAT KUSTOMER DOES
Kustomer, based in the United States, offers customer relationship management software. It is a service that specializes in assisting business customer service agents in managing communications with consumers.
The CRM industry has grown exponentially since the start of the pandemic and is currently led bySalesforce , the company from which the founders of Kustomer come.
THE STRATEGY OF THE MENLO PARK GROUP
Thanks to Kustomer, Facebook intends to provide small businesses that use its service to advertise and sell goods more functionality to close sales through social network services.
WHAT FACEBOOK WILL DO WITH KUSTOMER
Platforms such as the one developed by Kustomer help manage communications between companies and customers via telephone, SMS, email or specific chatbots on applications such as WhatsApp and Messenger, to name those that are part of the Facebook galaxy.
THE QUESTION OF PERSONAL DATA
As TechCrunch reported, the announcement quickly raised concerns about what Facebook might do with personal data held by Kustomer. The latter could relate to sensitive information, as the sectors served by the platform include healthcare and financial services.
THE BACKGROUND OF GOOGLE-FITBIT
All that remains is to await the results of the Brussels investigation. TechCrunch also recalled that in a recent separate episode – which involved another big tech like Google – and its acquisition of wearable device maker Fitbit, the deal went through months of competitive scrutiny in the EU and was only authorized. after the tech giant made a number of concessions, including a commitment not to use Fitbit data for ads for 10 years.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/perche-lantitrust-ue-scrutera-loperazione-facebook-kustomer/ on Wed, 12 May 2021 13:44:49 +0000.