On November 29, 2024, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) concluded that Microsoft’s hiring of nearly all of Inflection AI, Inc.’s (“Inflection”) employees together with agreements on financing and the use of Inflection’s intellectual property amounted to a “concentration” under German merger control law. However, due to the lack of “substantial domestic operations” at the time of the acquisition, the FCO declined jurisdiction to review the case.[1]
On February 11, 2022, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) approved the acquisition of OMV Retail Deutschland GmbH’s (“OMV”) filling station network by the British convenience retailer EG Group Limited (“EG Group”). The FCO’s approval is subject to the prior divestiture of 25 EG Group filling stations and 23 OMV filling stations in southern Germany.[1]
On January 17, 2022, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) published a case summary on its two consecutive in-depth-investigations of automotive supplier Dana Inc.’s (“Dana”)[1] proposed acquisition of (a portion of) Modine Manufacturing Company’s (“Modine”)[2] light-vehicle thermal business.[3] The parties first notified the acquisition in December 2020.
On January 13, 2022, the German Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) prohibited ACO Ahlmann SE & Co. KG’s (“ACO”) acquisition of BIRCO GmbH (“BIRCO”).[1]