Apple & big tech use 'loopholes' to escape merger regulations, says FTC
Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan says that Big Tech firms, including Apple, had exploited "loopholes" to make hundreds of acquisition deals without informing antitrust regulators.
Lina Khan. Credit: An Rong Xu/Getty
The FTC has published a report describing 819 incidents of transactions, over 10 years, which were small enough to not require regulatory approval. The transaction range from changes of voting control, to patent acquisition, and hiring.
According to Bloomberg, FTC Chair Lina Khan addressed a public meeting where she described the Commission's findings, and the conclusion that Big Tech was finding ways to grow unchecked.
"This study highlights the systemic nature of their acquisition strategy," she said. "Digital markets in particular reveal how smaller transactions invite vigilance."
Mergers, deals and other transactions that are large enough to be reported are said to be covered by the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The FTC's report lists what it calls "non-HSR reportable transactions," which were compiled from information from five Big Tech companies.
In February 2020, the FTC issued Special Orders to Apple, Alphabet (including Google), Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft. The orders required them to account for the "terms, scope, structure, and purpose" of acquisitions and other non-HSR deals made between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2019.
Read on AppleInsider
Lina Khan. Credit: An Rong Xu/Getty
The FTC has published a report describing 819 incidents of transactions, over 10 years, which were small enough to not require regulatory approval. The transaction range from changes of voting control, to patent acquisition, and hiring.
According to Bloomberg, FTC Chair Lina Khan addressed a public meeting where she described the Commission's findings, and the conclusion that Big Tech was finding ways to grow unchecked.
"This study highlights the systemic nature of their acquisition strategy," she said. "Digital markets in particular reveal how smaller transactions invite vigilance."
Mergers, deals and other transactions that are large enough to be reported are said to be covered by the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The FTC's report lists what it calls "non-HSR reportable transactions," which were compiled from information from five Big Tech companies.
In February 2020, the FTC issued Special Orders to Apple, Alphabet (including Google), Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft. The orders required them to account for the "terms, scope, structure, and purpose" of acquisitions and other non-HSR deals made between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2019.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
It's perfectly legal and more importantly reasonable, since otherwise, investors would be deluged with too much information. Most of these A&D deals go nowhere -- for every iTunes and iPod that came out of such A&D for Apple, there are likely a hundred others that went nowhere. The Congress put in the HSR thresholds for a reason: it speaks to a larger principle that an activity must be "material" for disclosure purposes.
These are just officious, overreaching, meddlesome bureaucrats with nothing much to do, going after a successful group of companies (I am not saying there aren't other legitimate reasons to go after them, e.g., Section 230, privacy etc).
"Vigilance" my ass (paraphrasing Schiller). Someone should remind her of the wonderful quote from judge in the Epic case: success is not illegal.
Heck, Google's entire venture into smartphones can be chalked up this: there would be no made by Google Pixel if they hadn't acquired HTC's smartphone division.
A lot of startups are formed just in the hopes that a large company would acquire them: look at Qualcomm's acquisition of Nuvia which never would've produced an ARM core competitor unless they stood under the umbrella of a larger more established company.
Heck, they still might not were it not for Microsoft's determination to make their own chips, probably using Qualcomm as their silicon proxy. Qualcomm certainly doesn't have the chops, stomach, or determination to accomplish something like that on their own. They've always been a company who assembles standard ARM cores into SoCs for purchase by OEM handset makers - and never demonstrated any desire or expertise to take on companies the scale of AMD or Intel on products powering real PCs.
I know it’s the FTC, but how about government start focusing on more important things like climate change.
Or do you already have a bias against big techs, like the newly appointed head of the FTC?
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/15/1006807299/lina-khan-prominent-big-tech-critic-will-lead-the-ftc
That would be like saying wealthy people that made a lot of money investing in big tech, are "exploiting loopholes" when they only have to pay 20% long term capital gains tax, on that income.
There’s nothing in the Constitution that gives the courts the power to “interpret” the Constitution. Marburg v Madison was a power grab, no matter what your law professor told you. If you don’t believe me, read the Constitution. Don’t “interpret” it. Actually read it, without changing the words.
"Read the Constitution Don't interpret it"! Tells me you can't actually read. Reading is not just sounding out the words. There's no such thing as Black Letter Law.