FTC Wants to Know About Acquisitions By Large Tech Companies

[engine]

The FTC wants to know about acquisitions made by large tech companies that were small and went unnoticed, going back the last ten years.

The Federal Trade Commission issued Special Orders to five large technology firms, requiring them to provide information about prior acquisitions not reported to the antitrust agencies under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The orders require Alphabet Inc. (including Google), Amazon.com, Inc., Apple Inc., Facebook, Inc., and Microsoft Corp. to provide information and documents on the terms, scope, structure, and purpose of transactions that each company consummated between Jan. 1, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2019.

[ftc.gov...]

[NickMNS]

I actually heard on Marketplace on NPR that the FTC may look as far back as Google's purchase of DoubleClick in 2008.
Here is a link to the podcast:
[wnyc.org...]
The point of interest is at about the 5 minute mark

[engine]

This could be a very interesting exercise, although, some of the smaller ones are of less importance, I always thought the doubleclick one was a biggie which, for some unknown reason, sailed through without enough questions.

[lammert]

Taking down competitors before they become so big that they will become a competitor. It will be interesting to see how the FTC will provide proof that anything unlawful happened upto 12 years after the facts took place, considering that at that moment everything appeared to go according to the rules. Also statues of limitations may limit the options for the FTC to take any legal action. At least when it comes to the DoubleClick purchase in 2008, this seems like a hollow threat to me.

[glakes]

So basically the FTC's actions here would indicate they were asleep at the wheel since 2010 and failed to monitor the biggest tech companies in the world. Being unable to perform their own investigations, they instead rely on big tech to implicate themselves. What a joke.

To sum everything up, the FTC grossly failed in their stated mission:

Protecting consumers and competition by preventing anticompetitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices through law enforcement, advocacy, and education without unduly burdening legitimate business activity.

The FTC's publicly posted vision statement would also indicate they need glasses, contacts or lasik surgery.

A vibrant economy characterized by vigorous competition and consumer access to accurate information.

See: [ftc.gov...]

I think most of us, who have taken the time to contact the FTC and DOJ regarding big tech abuses, fully understand how incompetent and lazy the FTC is. Regardless, look at the FTC's mission and vision statements. Does anyone truly believe the FTC has lived up to its mission and acted in such a way that supports their vision of vigorous competition and consumer access to accurate information? Just look at the Alphabet monopoly on search (Google) and all the other mini-monopolies under their control (Chrome, Gmail, YouTube, etc.). All these mini-monopolies were permitted under the FTC, and I don't see that the FTC has the will or work ethic to change it.

Consumer privacy, access to competing services/products and an economy fueled by vigorous competition has greatly suffered under the FTC.

[tangor]

The apparent new life in the FTC might also be a side effect of an administration change ... after all the previous two admins were very tech friendly. :)

Also FTC has been challenged by a few voices in Congress on its function and perhaps that has stirred things up as well.

Even with new fires built it will be some time before action takes place, all bureaucracies move at a glacial pace.

[JS_Harris]

AI is being trained to coral and mold our thoughts for political gain, now that raises the stakes a great deal.

Several politicians, on both sides, have openly chastised big tech companies for not doing the job to their liking. The bias is extreme these days, the divide huge, both sides claim the other is fake so it's time to stop punishing the end users for their opinions and to start regulating the platforms from outside.

Politicians not making personal attacks, media reporting without extreme bias and regular folks not being driven to hate for political reasons... is that even possible in 2020? The FTC has a very difficult job to do since big tech self-regulation has clearly failed. I wish them luck.

[mosxu]

How dare FTC do that? They were providing results based on user psychological profile to swing elections.