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Microsoft Offers Concessions To EU Regulators Eyeing Its $26.2 Billion LinkedIn Bid (techcrunch.com)
Microsoft has offered concessions to EC competition regulators in the hopes of smoothing the way for its planned acquisition of LinkedIn. From an article on TechCrunch, submitted by an anonymous reader: An EC spokesperson confirmed it has received "a commitments proposal" from Microsoft but declined to comment further. Commitments, in EC antitrust nomenclature, refers to remedies a company can offer if the Commission has concerns a merger/acquisition may significantly affect competition. These can include proposing certain modifications to the project to guarantee continued competition on the market.The news comes two weeks after Salesforce (which itself tried to purchase LinkedIn) urged EU to take a closer look at Microsoft's takeover of LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is very very well monetised. And it is on a recurring subscription basis.
Well, presuming Microsoft isn't just acquiring source code and hardware, but also user data, then the EU can tell Microsoft what it can do with that user data. So Microsoft can acquire Linked In just fine, but the EU can easily come around as say Microsoft must keep the Linked In information siloed (at least for EU members)