By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable Online, 2-5-20
The Federal Trade Commission has launched a lookback at some of the smaller past acquisitions by some of the largest tech companies.
The FTC said Tuesday it has issued “special orders” to Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, which require them to provide info on all acquisitions over the past decade (Jan. 1, 2010 to Dec. 31, 2019).
The orders are not related to any investigation of a specific company, but are rather an effort, the FTC said, to “deepen its understanding of large technology firms’ acquisition activity, including how these firms report their transactions to the federal antitrust agencies, and whether large tech companies are making potentially anticompetitive acquisitions of nascent or potential competitors that fall below HSR [Hart Scott Rodino] filing thresholds and therefore do not need to be reported to the antitrust agencies.” » Read More