C 77/2
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
1.3.2023
V (Announcements)
PROCEDURES RELATING TO THE IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPETITION POLICY
EUROPEAN COMMISSION Prior notification of a concentration (Case M.10796 – GOOGLE / PHOTOMATH) (Text with EEA relevance)
(2023/C 77/02)
1.
On 21 February 2023, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 and following a referral pursuant to Article 4(5) of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).
This notification concerns the following undertakings: — Google LLC (‘Google’, US), controlled by Alphabet Inc. (US), — Photomath, Inc. (‘Photomath’, US).
Google will acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation control of the whole of Photomath.
The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of shares.
2.
The business activities of the undertakings concerned are the following:
— Google is active in a wide range of product areas, including advertising technology, internet search, cloud computing, software and hardware.
Amongst other products and services, Google provides several education products, including apps, programmes and digital literacy tools, across a range of subjects, including certain maths topics, — Photomath provides free and premium versions of a homework help app that utilises a smartphone’s camera to scan and recognise symbolic maths problems (algebra, calculus, graphs etc), providing users with step-by-step solutions based on its own proprietary capabilities. 3.
On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation.
However, the final decision on this point is reserved. 4.
The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.
Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication.
The following reference should always be specified: M.10796 – GOOGLE / PHOTOMATH (1) OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’).