14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft won a bidding war earlier this year to purchase social network LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, but now that the deal is being looked into by regulators across the world, one of the companies that competed against the software giant is trying to block the takeover.
Salesforce claims that Microsoft purchasing LinkedIn would dramatically hurt competition because the software giant would thus get access to data owned by the social network and could possibly refuse to share it with competitors.
Burke Norton, Salesforce’s chief legal officer, has also explained that there are several data privacy issues in the deal and called for an investigation from the United States and the European Union.
“Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of LinkedIn threatens the future of innovation and competition,” he was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal.
Deal already approved in some countries
Microsoft has already issued a statement to explain that the takeover of LinkedIn has already been looked into by several regulators and everything was fine, as the company received the go-ahead from several watchdogs in unnamed countries.
“Salesforce may not be aware, but the deal has already been cleared to close in the United States, Canada, and Brazil,” responded Brad Smith, Microsoft’s chief legal officer. “We’re committed to continuing to work to bring price competition to a CRM market in which Salesforce is the dominant participant charging customers higher prices today.”
Right now, Salesforce is yet to file a formal complaint against the takeover, but according to the aforementioned source, the company has already completed a form that’s sent by the European Union to firms that are potentially affected by such deals. It’s not yet clear if Salesforce opposed to the deal in this form, but chances are that it did given its current position.
“We intend to work closely with regulators, lawmakers and other stakeholders to make the case that this merger is anticompetitive,” Salesforce explained.
The EU has already stated that it’ll closely look into data deals that could affect competitors and violate privacy, but a formal investigation is yet to begin.