Deals
Salesforce Urges Microsoft-LinkedIn Probes Amid AI Concerns
- Deal threatens innovation and competition, Salesforce says
- Extended review of acquisition could delay approval for months
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Salesforce.com Inc. urged the European Union to take a close look at Microsoft Corp.’s takeover of LinkedIn Corp. as EU regulators ask questions on how the software giant could use artificial intelligence to exploit data from LinkedIn’s professionals.
Salesforce plans to tell European and U.S. antitrust officials it has concerns about the combination, Chief Legal Officer Burke Norton said in a statement Thursday. The $26.2 billion acquisition, Microsoft’s largest ever, has been cleared by U.S. regulators and hasn’t yet been officially submitted for European Union approval. The commission is already seeking information from rivals -- a routine step when reviewing the implications of a large transaction.