The ACCC concluded it is unlikely that the acquisition would result in Salesforce preventing Slack’s rivals from competing effectively. Similarly, the ACCC did not consider it likely that Salesforce’s rivals would be competitively disadvantaged.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced it will not stand in the way of the $27.7 billion sale of Slack to tech giant Salesforce. The companies announced the deal in December and the Australian watchdog commenced an informal review under the Informal Merger Review Process Guidelines in March. Read more: Salesforce acquires Slack for $27.7 billion in its largest acquisition ever: Here’s the plan « The ACCC concluded that the proposed acquisition is unlikely to have the effect or likely effect of substantially lessening competition, » it declared. « Salesforce’s CRM solution and Slack’s team collaboration solution are differentiated and complementary offerings. The ACCC notes that users of CRM solutions value the ability to integrate their solution with third party software and applications, and the same is true for users of team collaboration solutions. » The ACCC considered whether the proposed acquisition would give Salesforce the ability and incentive to engage in bundling techniques, or restrict Slack’s rivals’ team collaboration solutions from integrating with Salesforce’s CRM solution, to the detriment of Slack’s rivals. The competition watchdog found that Salesforce may have the ability to engage in such conduct, but that it was unlikely to have the incentive to do so. It also considered whether the proposed acquisition would give Salesforce the ability and incentive to engage in bundling techniques, or restrict Salesforce’s rivals’ CRM solutions from integrating with Slack’s team collaboration solution, to the detriment of Salesforce’s rivals.
