Short of requiring divesting pieces of
companies, other options could include
putting assets into a separate company unit
or mandating changes in how the companies
conduct business, Simons said.
The focus of the review is on acquisitions
with a smaller value, about $100 million
or less, that didn’t trigger government
reporting requirements for the companies.
But Simons said the regulators are interested
in tech industry mergers of all sizes. The FTC
staff also will look into whether companies
may have manipulated the value of
some acquisitions to evade the reporting
requirements, he said.
The FTC, the Justice Department and a House
committee have been investigating the
conduct of Facebook, Google, Amazon
and Apple, and whether they aggressively
bought smaller potential rivals to suppress
competition and hurt consumers. Some critics
have pointed to Facebook’s acquisition of
Instagram and WhatsApp, for example, as deals
that should be questioned.
The popular messaging services are among
some 70 companies that Facebook has
acquired over the past 15 years or so, giving it
what critics say is massive market power that
has enabled it to snuff out competition.
The five FTC commissioners voted unanimously
to issue the so-called special orders to the
tech companies. The agency is asking the
companies for information and documents
on the terms, scope, structure and purpose of
acquisitions made between Jan. 1, 2010 and
Dec. 31, 2019.