(Reuters) -European antitrust regulators are preparing to launch a formal investigation into software giant Adobe’s $20 billion buyout deal for cloud-based designer platform Figma later this year, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
EU authorities plan to push forward with a detailed investigation, over anti-competition concerns, which could take many months and may ultimately derail the deal altogether, FT said, citing people with knowledge of the move.
The report comes after Britain’s competition watchdog said last month that it was looking into the Adobe-Figma deal, while Bloomberg reported in February that the U.S. Justice Department was preparing an antitrust lawsuit to block the deal.
These moves underline global regulators’ worries that large tech firms acquiring smaller innovative rivals could throttle competition.
EU regulators have earlier said that Adobe would need to secure European Union antitrust approval for the Figma deal even though the deal falls short of the EU turnover threshold for a review.
Adobe is still in preliminary phases of the regulatory process and having constructive discussions with the Britain, EU and U.S. regulators about the deal, it said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Figma did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
(Reporting by Lavanya Ahire and Anusha S in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Rashmi Aich)
