ForgeRock, Thoma Bravo met with DOJ over antitrust concerns, Bloomberg says

ForgeRock (FORG) and Thoma Bravo met with Department of Justice antitrust officials Friday in an effort to persuade them not to block the proposed takeover, Leah Nylen of Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the meeting. The companies met with Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who will make the final call on whether to file a suit, three people who were familiar with details of the meeting told Bloomberg. Such “last rites” meetings are often one of the last steps before either a lawsuit or a settlement are filed, Nylen reports. Kanter hasn’t yet made a decision according to one of the people. The Justice Department agreed to continue discussions with the companies over the next week, the source told Bloomberg. The DOJ is concerned the deal would harm the market for identity management software since Thoma Bravo already owns one of ForgeRock’s main competitors – Ping Identity Holding, Nylen points out. ForgeRock said in a statement Friday to Bloomberg that it’s committed to closing the transaction and noted that “digital identity is a very competitive market and customers and other organizations have many choices when designing their identity and access management systems.” Shares of ForgeRock are up 1% to $20.20 following the report.