EC unconditionally clears Google's acquisition of Wiz following Phase I review

Following its Phase I review, the European Commission has granted unconditional approval of the proposed $32 billion acquisition by Google of cybersecurity company Wiz, after the deal had already been cleared by the DOJ end of last year. 

The Commission assessed whether the combination of Google’s cloud and cybersecurity products and Wiz’s cloud-native application protection platform could have raised competition concerns across cloud and cybersecurity markets. After its Phase I review, the EC found that the Parties will continue to face effective competition from a range of alternative providers that customers could switch to if Google were to bundle Wiz’s multi-cloud security platform with its existing offerings, or in case Wiz’s platform were no longer interoperable with non-Google cloud environments. Its market investigation also confirmed that the data accessible to Google as a result of the transaction is not commercially sensitive and is generally available to other security software providers operating in the market. On that basis, the transaction was approved without conditions.

RBB advised Google through this investigation. RBB’s team was led by Benoît DurandBenoît DurandPartner, Paul HutchinsonPaul HutchinsonPartner, James HillJames HillPartner and Stephen LewisStephen LewisPartner, supported by Alia SchweigerAlia SchweigerPrincipal, Paul StoddartPaul StoddartPrincipal, Agata SosnowskaAgata SosnowskaAssociate Principal, Francesca AmoreFrancesca AmoreAssociate Principal, Meryem Haraj TouzaniMeryem Haraj TouzaniAssociate Principal, Chiara MuziChiara MuziSenior Associate, Hong CaoHong CaoSenior Associate, Jooseppi KalliokoskiJooseppi KalliokoskiSenior Associate and Jane RosenbergJane RosenbergSenior Associate. RBB worked on this matter alongside Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.