On Tuesday, the US Federal Trade Commission opened an antitrust investigation into several tech companies, including Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google, and the latter’s parent company Alphabet. The probe is looking into the firms’ acquisitions over the past several years.
Specifically, the FTC is focussing on buyouts that were not required to be reported to the Commission and other agencies by the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. Under the HSR Act, companies must file paperwork with the FTC and the Department of Justice before completing mergers or buyouts. The filings are used to determine whether they are anticompetitive or not.
