Visa Abandons $5.3B Acquisition of Plaid Over DOJ Antitrust Concerns

The Justice Department's November 2020 suit has reversed the planned merger. The United States Department of Justice saw a victory in a major fintech acquisition case that could set the stage for a host of antitrust enforcements.On Tuesday, the DoJ announced that Visa and Plaid had called it quits on their planned merger. Originally announced almost exactly a year ago, Visa was planning to pay $5.3 billion for the upstart tech firm. Plaid's ubiquitous software is designed to connect disparate systems of financial data securely. In its November 2020 complaint, the DoJ alleged that Visa was....

Monopolizing a market is legal in some instances, but not others. The United States Department of Justice is filing suit against Visa for its acquisition of Plaid, which the DoJ argues is an illegal play to achieve monopoly. According a complaint filed by the DoJ on Wednesday: "Visa seeks to buy Plaid — as its CEO said — as an 'insurance policy' to neutralize a 'threat to our important US debit business.' By acquiring Plaid, Visa would eliminate a nascent competitive threat that would likely result in substantial savings and more innovative online debit services for merchants and....

U.S. authorities want information from Bain & Co about Visa's Plaid acquisition. The U.S. Department of Justice, or DoJ, recently publicized an investigation into Visa's ongoing acquisition of fintech company Plaid.  "Today, the Department of Justice filed a petition in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to enforce Bain & Company’s compliance with the department’s Civil Investigative Demand (CID)," the DoJ said in an Oct. 27 public statement. Essentially, U.S. authorities have taken legal action to obtain information from Boston-based consulting giant Bain & Company....

U.S. regulator's growing distrust in tech companies is not stopping them from extending their services into the crypto industry. As technology titans in the United States capture a larger part of their industries and beyond, regulators and governments have become increasingly concerned about their extensive power and influence. Indeed, Facebook, Twitter and Google’s parent company Alphabet all appeared before a Congressional antitrust hearing in July. The primary concern of the government is that these companies use their authority to stifle competition and manipulate users to maintain....

The Justice Department alleges Visa’s acquisition of Plaid would eliminate competition in the online debit market, leading to higher prices.