EU opens door to bigger corporate mergers
Reported: Anthony Whelan, head of the Commission’s competition directorate, signals clearer openness to large mergers that can create “champions, including European champions” where deals improve scale, innovation, investment or security of supply versus US/China rivals — following Draghi competitiveness warnings and revised 2026 merger guidelines. Companies should argue pro-competitive scale benefits. Shift is “colour blind” (not preferential for EU firms). Longer time-horizon analysis: access to geopolitically constrained inputs, pooling capital for high-cost innovation, infrastructure/networks. AI watched as oligopoly-prone given frontier-model and compute costs; focus on undistorted competition around the AI ecosystem and lowering entry barriers. Whelan rejects claims of a “filing cabinet” of buried US cases under Trump tariff pressure; calls digital-rulebook clash with Washington “disappointing” but stresses EU neutrality/predictability as an asset amid arbitrariness elsewhere.
Why it matters
Structural Europe M&A/policy shift for Dealroom: Draghi-era merger control that could green-light scale-up consolidations and European champions while keeping AI ecosystem scrutiny. Directly affects exit paths, corporate venture roll-ups, and whether Europe can assemble AI/compute scale via deals.
