By coinnews 
00:00 Speaker A
Earlier today, Google signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wiz, a New York-based cloud security startup for $32 billion in an all cash deal. It is the largest deal in Google’s history if it gets approved. Joining us now with more on the regulatory hurdles is Yahoo! Finance Legal Reporter, Alexis Keenan. Alexis,
00:22 Alexis Keenan
Yes, so, it sounds like, from talking to Antitrust attorneys, that this isn’t going to be a free pass, right? That this is going to get scrutiny by either the DOJ or the FTC, probably the DOJ because they are the ones who have been scrutinizing Google across the board and the litigation is already pending. Um, but this $32 billion deal, um, ultimately, it’s expected that it’ll get approved. Why? Well, one, it’s a vertical merger. Those tend to be less scrutinized, although in recent years, both in Trump 1.0, as well as in the Biden Administration, vertical mergers were looked at a little more closely. So definitely the thinking here is that it’s going to get a close look. Um, but maybe, just maybe, the Trump Administration will have a little bit of a lighter touch when it comes to a vertical merger. Maybe would even make a deal if a deal needs to be made in order to, uh, pass muster, to make this deal comfortable for all parties involved. Uh, you have to look back at the Biden Administration where these parties already decided, in part based on regulatory concerns, that they would just walk away from this deal. Um, so the parties though, they seem to be pretty confident. You have a $3.2 billion breakup fee in this deal that Google would have to pay if it doesn’t come to pass. Um, also, attorneys say, no matter what, it’s going to get, at minimum, a second request, and that’s where the regulatory agencies, they ask for more details about the deal so that they can properly evaluate its impact on the market. So we don’t have the figures exactly for the cloud cyber security market. Now, Google is not really in that market. They are in the cloud, uh, security market, but not cloud cyber security market. So if you look at Amazon frontrunner, 30% in the cloud market, uh, followed by Microsoft Azure at 21%, Google there with 12% in that particular market. That’s probably going to matter to the DOJ or the FTC, too. But the main question that these regulators are going to want to answer is whether Google will scoop up Wiz and then use that strategically to start blocking its competitors, these rivals, these big tech rivals, and other rivals,
03:04 Alexis Keenan
little tech, too. Are they going to use that to block that service from those rivals? That’s going to be the main concern. Uh, so a lot to be, a lot of story to be told here. Timeline wise, uh, the pre-merger notice period has been stretched out a bit because there are some new requirements, or new, new thresholds that the DOJ or the FTC can look at. Um, and also, you have to throw into the mix that the Trump Administration has really said they want to be, um, conscious, I guess, of, and, of, um, uh, of AI related enforcements. So you could argue maybe that there’s a tinge of that here because certainly, as the AI market gets bigger and bigger, cyber security and the cloud is all that more important.
04:08 Speaker A
Great. Yeah, I remember when he was on the campaign trail, Alexis, Trump would kind of make this distinction between what he called Big Tech and Little Tech.
04:16 Alexis Keenan
Big Tech and Little Tech.
04:17 Speaker A
He liked the latter. The former, not always, not always a huge fan.
04:24 Alexis Keenan
Yeah.
04:25 Speaker A
We’ll see how this plays out. Thank you, Alexis.
04:28 Alexis Keenan
Yeah.