REPORT: EU to Approve Facebook-WhatsApp Deal

The European Union will announce its unconditional regulatory approval of Facebook’s $19 billion deal to acquire cross-platform messaging application WhatsApp, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters Thursday.

EuropeanUnionFlags650The European Union will announce its unconditional regulatory approval of Facebook’s $19 billion deal to acquire cross-platform messaging application WhatsApp, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters Thursday.

One of the sources told Reuters, “It’s unconditional clearance.”

Facebook announced that it would acquire WhatsApp in February, and the deal received Federal Trade Commission approval in April, with the condition that WhatsApp must maintain its pre-Facebook privacy practices.

In May, the social network requested that the European Commission, the EU’s central antitrust authority, review its acquisition of WhatsApp, rather than subjecting the transaction to investigations in several individual countries in the region.

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