Dutch government blocks US company from acquisition citing risk to public interest

The Dutch government has blocked American IT giant Kyndryl from acquiring Solvinity, a Dutch cloud provider. Solvinity hosts the Netherlands online identity platform known as DigiD. Officials in The Hague said the deal poses a possible risk to the public interest. Dutch minister for the digital economy Willemijn Aerdts said in a machine-translated letter that the government has imposed a complete prohibition on the acquisition. The deal would have allowed Kyndryl to buy Solvinity for an undisclosed sum. DigiD is a service managed by the Dutch government that allows the country's residents to verify their identity when accessing public services. The deal triggered fears that DigiD data would fall under foreign control and could be demanded by U.S. authorities. The Dutch government did not provide an explicit reason for blocking the acquisition. The move comes as several European countries are moving to reduce their reliance on U.S. technology giants at a time when the Trump administration has been increasingly unpredictable and retaliatory. U.S. law allows government authorities, including law enforcement and intelligence agencies, to demand that U.S. companies turn over data held in overseas data centers, regardless of that country's data protection laws. Politico first reported the news. Kyndryl told the publication that the company was extremely disappointed by the decision.