Google’s planned acquisition of cybersecurity vendor and consulting services provider Mandiant has cleared another hurdle after receiving approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
“Our investigation concluded that Google and Mandiant are not competitors in the supply of cybersecurity products and that this acquisition was not likely to substantially lessen competition,” ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
The regulator also said the proposed deal was approved as there are a number of alternative suppliers of cybersecurity and cloud platform products.
“We found the acquisition was unlikely to give Google the incentive and ability to foreclose competitors in cloud platform or cybersecurity services due to the existence of alternative suppliers,” Cass-Gottlieb added.
The ACCC also said it considered whether Google would have the ability and incentive to engage in conduct that could foreclose rival cloud or cybersecurity providers post-acquisition, but also found it was unlikely to occur given the alternatives.
Google announced plans to acquire Mandiant, a specialist of real-time and in-depth threat intelligence services and products, in March 2022 for US$4.5 billion.
The tech giant aims to target system integrators, resellers and managed security service providers with broader cybersecurity solutions through the acquisition.
Mandiant, initially founded in 2004 by current CEO Kevin Mandia, was acquired by cybersecurity vendor FireEye in 2014. The combined company in June 2021 sold off the FireEye product business to Symphony Technology Group for US$1.2 billion, and brought back the Mandiant name as it focused on threat intelligence and incident response services.
Google last month cleared an antitrust inquiry from the US Department of Justice, also taking down another hurdle to the deal. The tech giant expects the acquisition will finalise by the end of 2022.
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