Despite obtaining approval from the Federal Trade Commission in the United States, Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp is facing a new hurdle in the form of a potential antitrust review in Europe after concerns have been raised by the European Union’s telecommunications companies.
These companies, of course, tell the age-old story that we’re intimately familiar with here on TruTower regarding loss of text messaging (SMS) revenues, but there are also regulators who are giving the deal the glare or two due to the high market share in Europe that Facebook and WhatsApp as a combined entity hold compared to providers of similar services.
Facebook has “approached the European Commission, the EU’s central antitrust authority” to ask it to review the deal, according to the WSJ and the commission has “informed national competition authorities of the request.”
The move could potentially help Facebook avoid antitrust roadblocks in a number of EU countries where it will undoubtedly face a high level of scrutiny. Of course, for EU authorities to review the deal, the companies must show that it meets the criteria for being reviewed in at least three EU countries, and it’s not clear which countries will choose to launch their own investigations.