Amber Neely
The Federal Trade Commission announced that it is launching a probe into past acquisitions made by Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Google, and Facebook, going back to 2010.
The FTC is moving forward with antitrust investigations against some of the largest tech companies in the U.S.
The agency is hoping to uncover information that was not reported to the antitrust agencies under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. All involved companies will bet required to provide information and documents on the terms, scope, structure, and purpose of transactions that took place between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2019.
It isn't yet clear if any or all of Apple's acquisitions need to be re-examined.
The investigation is intended to help the FTC understand large technology firms' acquisition activity and gain insight into how the firms handle reporting transactions to antitrust agencies. They also are investigating whether or not the large companies are engaging in anti-competitive practices by buying out nascent or potential competitors.
"Digital technology companies are a big part of the economy and our daily lives," said FTC Chairman Joe Simons. "This initiative will enable the Commission to take a closer look at acquisitions in this important sector, and also to evaluate whether the federal agencies are getting adequate notice of transactions that might harm competition. This will help us continue to keep tech markets open and competitive. for the benefit of consumers."
Chairman Simons has said that he'd be open to the idea of breaking apart giant tech firms like Apple by undoing mergers, if it is determined large entities like Facebook are harming competition across the tech industry as a whole by being too dominant.
Apple has been under fire for anti-competitive practices in the past. Spotify has claimed that Apple gives Apple Music preferential treatment with Siri and Home Pod integration. They also allege that Apple's 30 percent cut of purchases on the app store — such as a Spotify subscription — make it hard for the company to turn a profit.
Tile met with the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee in January to raise concerns about big tech's ability to push smaller companies out of the market. The story parallels that of LunaDisplay and Duet Display, who claimed that Apple had "Sherlocked" them in order to develop its Sidecar feature.
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22 Comments
Hmmmm .... sounds like a fishing expedition
Of course, when was the last time you heard anything about the FTC investigating pharmaceutical, oil/gas, and medical insurance companies?Technology companies pay a lot for lobbying but the other companies much pay more to bribe the FTC to stay away from them.
As I'm reading it the FTC is not interested in rehashing previous acquisitions that were vetted and approved by regulatory agencies. I think the inquiry involves those smaller company purchases that haven't previously required review and tend to fly under the radar. The FTC absolutely wants a report on every one of those, and detailed as tho it was a purchase that would have fallen under the Hart–Scott–Rodino Antitrust Improvements (HSR) Act. They also want to understand what happens to those companies after the purchase.
At the moment they don't want to look at something like Beats which already passed muster, but stuff like Xnor and InVisage and any of the other 50+ company purchases a tech like Apple makes each year but rarely acknowledges. The concerns have to do with how those buyouts and acqui-hires are impacting the marketplace and limiting the ability of smaller and/or and startup companies to compete with the big boys.
It should be a pretty revealing report when it's all put together and released, and it will get publically released IMHO.
EDIT: My guess is this is the result of an earlier hearing:
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events-calendar/2018/10/ftc-hearing-3-competition-consumer-protection-21st-century