The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) will not oppose Meta’s, previously known as Facebook Inc., proposed acquisition of customer relationship management (CRM) software provider Kustomer.
During the investigation, the ACCC heard that access to Meta’s messaging services is important for (CRM) providers, particularly middle-sized businesses.
ACCC chair, Rod Sims (featured image) said: “We were initially concerned about the prospect of Meta restricting access to its messaging services for competing CRM providers, however we concluded that Meta is unlikely to have an incentive to do this.
“We consider that Meta’s interest is in promoting use of its messaging services so that it can grow its advertising business. Restricting access for competing CRM providers is inconsistent with that.
“We found that Meta is likely to continue to promote its services through other CRM providers as well as Kustomer.”
The ACCC also noted that Meta and Kustomer’s services have a minor overlap and that Kustomer has a small presence in Australia.
Sims added: “Based on the information gathered during our investigation, we consider this proposed acquisition is unlikely to have a significant impact in Australia, and is not likely to result in a substantially lessening of competition in any market in Australia.”
Kustomer focuses on business interactions with customers.
Some of Kustomer’s services include collating customer interactions that occur through channels used by a business like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter, email, SMS or webchat.
