CCI looking at killer, creeping acquisitions in digital market: Ravneet Kaur

New Delhi, Dec 11, 2024

Synopsis
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is investigating merger and acquisition deal values in the digital market to identify potential "killer or creeping acquisitions." The CCI is also examining the practice of large digital platforms poaching staff from smaller startups, particularly in the generative AI sector, to assess potential anti-competitive behavior.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is looking at deal values in M&A transactions in the digital market sector to check if such transactions are "killer or creeping acquisitions", an official said on Wednesday. CCI Chairperson Ravneet Kaur said the anti-trust regulator is looking at the deal value in zero-priced digital models that are being operated.

Asset turnover threshold may not be there, so the CCI is trying to understand from the deal value if the M&A transaction is killer, Kaur said at CII Global Economic Policy Forum 2024.

"Killer acquisitions" refer to a practice where a dominant company acquires a smaller competitor, with the primary intent of stifling potential competition.

Creeping acquisition is a process through which shares of the target company are acquired gradually from the open market.

Kaur further said poaching of staff of small startups on GenAI by bigger players on the digital platform.

"That is one aspect being looked at in the US and the EU. These big digital platforms which are having the first moving advantage even in case of artificial intelligence they are poaching staff of small startups on GenAI. That is an area of concern which has emerged on the competition side.

"We have so far not looked at anything of that sort in India but if there is a requirement, that they are trying to escape the notification, before the commission then maybe that will be looked at," Kaur said.

[The Economic Times]