REDMOND, Wash. -- Any probe into Microsoft Corp.'s acquisition of professional social network LinkedIn Corp. will focus on the tie-up's potential to leverage vast amounts of user data, the European Union's antitrust chief said Friday.
The European Commission would look at whether "the data purchased in the deal has a very long durability and might constitute a barrier for others, or if they can be replicated so that others stand a chance to enter the market," Margrethe Vestager said.
The Dane, who took office at the end of 2014, has signaled a willingness to delve more into how merging companies leverage the treasure trove of data at their disposal. Data was one of the key considerations in the review of Facebook Inc.'s takeover of messaging service WhatsApp Inc., even though Vestager's predecessor in the end concluded there were no data-usage concerns.
Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn for about $26.2 billion, one of the largest technology-industry deals on record, as the maker of Windows and Office software attempts to put itself at the center of people's business lives. The deal is a way for Microsoft, which largely missed out on the consumer Web boom dominated by the likes of Google and Facebook, to sprint ahead in social tools -- in this case, for professionals.