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 that hosts the Netherlands’ online identity platform. The government 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 published Monday that the government has imposed a “complete prohibition” on the acquisition. The deal would have allowed Kyndryl to buy Solvinity for an undisclosed sum. Solvinity hosts a platform called DigiD, a service managed by the Dutch government that allows the country’s residents to verify their identity when accessing public services.