UK antitrust officials join FTC in investigating Microsoft's hiring of Inflection AI staff

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Antitrust Scrutiny,Inflection,The Competition And Markets Authority

Kris Holt joined Engadget as a contributing reporter on the news desk in 2018. He has been writing about technology, games, streaming and entertainment for over a decade after starting his career as a sub-editor on a local newspaper. Kris holds a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Dundee.

and its licensing of the startup's tech. The initial phase one investigation will be wrapped up by September 11, at which point the CMA will determine whether to open a more in-depth probe.

The agency will try to determine whether Microsoft attempted to avoid antitrust scrutiny by recruiting Inflection's staff and employing its tech but not buying the company outright. It will look at whether the moves "resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002" and if that has, or is likely to have, a negative impact on competition in the UK.

"We are confident that the hiring of talent promotes competition and should not be treated as a merger,” Microsoft told in a statement. “We will provide the UK CMA with the information it needs to complete its inquiries expeditiously.”its non-voting observer seat on OpenAI's board in what onlookers believed was an attempt to evade further antitrust scrutiny. Microsoft has invested

Meanwhile, the CMA and Microsoft are familiar foes. The antitrust agency heavily scrutinized Microsoft's $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard. The probe was the

 

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