European Commission clears Google's $32bn acquisition of Wiz

(Sharecast News) - The European Commission said on Wednesday that it has approved Google's $32bn acquisition of cybersecurity firm Wiz. Alphabet's Google announced last March that it had agreed to buy Wiz in its biggest ever acquisition.

The EC said in a statement that it had concluded the transaction would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area (EEA). It found there are several credible competitors customers could switch to if Google were to bundle Wiz's multi-cloud security platform with its existing products, or in case Wiz's platform no longer worked with clouds other than Google's.

The EC also looked into whether in buying Wiz, Google would obtain access to commercially sensitive data on competing cloud service providers that also integrate with Wiz's solutions.

"The market investigation confirmed that the data that Google would obtain as a result of the transaction is not commercially sensitive, and can generally be accessed by other security software companies," it said.

Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, said: "Following a thorough investigation, the Commission has cleared Google's acquisition of Wiz. Google stands behind Amazon and Microsoft in terms of market shares in cloud infrastructure, and our assessment confirmed that customers will continue to have credible alternatives and the ability to switch providers.

"The transaction therefore does not raise competition concerns in cloud services or cloud security in the European Economic Area."