Since February 2020, staff members at the Federal Trade Commission have been studying past acquisitions by Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft – several years’ worth of deals that did not require reporting to antitrust authorities because the deal sizes fell below regulatory requirements. FTC Chair Lina M. Khan says the study reveals “the extent to which these firms have devoted tremendous resources to acquiring start-ups, patent portfolios, and entire teams of technologists—and how they were able to do so largely outside of our purview.” She said the Commission’s enforcement actions have focused on how these companies “buy their way out of competing.” READ MORE