FCO Finds That Microsoft’s Hiring of Key Inflection Employees and Licensing of Inflection Technology Constitutes a Reportable Concentration, but Declines Jurisdiction Due to Lack of Sufficient Local Nexus

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.

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