The UK's CMA closed its investigation on the Alphabet/Google-Anthropic partnership
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has closed its investigation into the arrangement between Alphabet/Google and Anthropic. The CMA determined that a merger situation is unlikely given Anthropic's market share size, and the lack of demonstrable material influence on Google's part.
Nearly a month after announcing that it would launch a Phase 1 investigation on the arrangements between Alphabet and Anthropic, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially closed that investigation, after finding that Anthropic does not meet the regulator's turnover test, which is one of its criteria of eligibility for a (quasi) merger investigation.
Furthermore, the CMA also found it unlikely that Alphabet may be exercising material influence over the startup, even after investing $2 billion in Anthropic last year. Reportedly, the CMA mainly looked into two factors to determine its decision: on the one hand, whether Alphabet's investment in Anthropic gave the former sufficient power to exert influence on the latter's board; and on the other, whether there could be issues arising from Anthropic being overly dependent on Alphabet's infrastructure. The CMA found neither to be the case.
In September, the CMA closed a similar investigation that looked into Anthropic's partnership with Amazon. Unlike in this case, where the CMA found that Alphabet is unlikely to have material influence on Anthropic, the final decision (summary) of the Phase 1 decision on the Amazon-Anthropic partnership records that the CMA found reasons to believe that Amazon may hold material influence over the startup. However, the decision also notes that the CMA was not under the obligation to reach a conclusion on the matter, since Anthropic did not pass the turnover test.
