EU Will Not Review Microsoft’s Hiring of Inflection Team

Microsoft’s hiring of Inflection’s team, including co-founders, won’t be reviewed by EU regulators after seven countries withdrew their requests.

Microsoft recently hired the team from an artificial intelligence startup called Inflection, including the co-founders. This move won’t be checked by European Union regulators. On Wednesday, the EU said it would not look into this deal further.

Earlier this month, Europe’s top court made a rule about how the EU handles mergers. The court decided that if a deal is not big enough in terms of money, the EU can’t investigate it. Also, the court said the EU couldn’t ask national authorities to check these smaller deals.

Because of this, seven EU countries that had asked for an examination of Microsoft’s deal with Inflection decided to withdraw their requests. The European Commission, which is the EU’s antitrust watchdog, confirmed this. 

They said, “All seven members say that submitted an initial referral have decided to withdraw their requests. Therefore, the Commission will take no decision in this matter.”

Even though the deal won’t be reviewed as a merger, the European Commission said it still counts as one. They mentioned that the “new Inflection” will focus on its AI studio business.

Microsoft’s acquisition is seen as a big change in the market. The Commission called it a “concentration” under Article 3 of the EU’s merger rules. This means it’s a major shift in how businesses operate.

Microsoft was pleased with the news. A company spokesperson said, “We continue to be confident that the hiring of talent promotes competition and should not be treated as a merger.” 

They believe adding Inflection’s team will help them improve their AI products and create more competition.

In March, Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman and Karen Simonyan, the co-founders of Inflection, along with most of the startup’s 70-member team. They joined Microsoft for a new division called Microsoft AI. 

This new team will help Microsoft strengthen and expand its AI products for consumers.

Microsoft wants to use this acquisition to make its AI technology better and stay ahead in the market. They hope this move will help them provide better products and services to their users.