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Google acquisition to go ahead unopposed
Following an investigation, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has stated it will not oppose Google’s $5.4 billion acquisition of cyber security company Mandiant.
Lauren Croft
Earlier this year, Google confirmed its acquisition of Mandiant, in a move to strengthen its security offerings to consumers.
Following an ACCC investigation, the watchdog has given the green light on the acquisition — and stated on Thursday (11 August) it would not oppose the acquisition. The ACCC said that it consulted with both customers and competitors of Google and Mandiant before reaching a conclusion, in addition to applying the legal test set out in section 50 of the Competition and Consumer Act.
Mandiant offers frontline expertise and threat intelligence and responds to thousands of security breaches each year — and reflects Google Cloud’s ongoing security commitments, according to Google Cloud chief executive Thomas Kurian.
“The Mandiant brand is synonymous with unmatched insights for organizations seeking to keep themselves secure in a constantly changing environment,” he said in a statement earlier this year.
“This is an opportunity to deliver an end-to-end security operations suite and extend one of the best consulting organizations in the world. Together we can make a profound impact in securing the cloud, accelerating the adoption of cloud computing, and ultimately make the world safer.”
Commenting on the matter, ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said that the deal would not be likely to substantially lessen any competition between the two companies.
“Our investigation concluded that Google and Mandiant are not competitors in the supply of cybersecurity products and that this acquisition was not likely to substantially lessen competition,” she said.
“Our investigation found that there are a number of alternative suppliers of cybersecurity and cloud platform products. We found the acquisition was unlikely to give Google the incentive and ability to foreclose competitors in cloud platform or cybersecurity services due to the existence of alternative suppliers.”
The deal is expected to close later this year.
Lauren Croft
Lauren is a journalist at Lawyers Weekly and graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism from Macleay College. Prior to joining Lawyers Weekly, she worked as a trade journalist for media and travel industry publications and Travel Weekly. Originally born in England, Lauren enjoys trying new bars and restaurants, attending music festivals and travelling. She is also a keen snowboarder and pre-pandemic, spent a season living in a French ski resort.
