The Acquisitions have continued in upper part of the market. With many expecting to fight this out in the courts.
An increasingly hostile regulatory climate hasn’t stopped Big Tech giants from continuing to seal billion-dollar deals.
Why it matters: There could be a clock on this. President Biden’s antitrust enforcers are flexing their muscles around mergers, Axios’ Margaret Harding McGill and Ashley Gold report.
State of play: Google’s $5.4 billion bid to buy cybersecurity firm Mandiant is the latest in a string of high-dollar acquisitions by Big Tech.
Microsoft announced a $68 billion deal for video game company Activision Blizzard in January.
Amazon is under regulatory review for its $8.45 billion purchase of Hollywood studio MGM, announced last year.
Meta (then Facebook) bought Kustomer for $1 billion and Giphy for $400 million in 2020, just a few months before the FTC sued the company over past acquisitions.
👀 What we’re watching: Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, says: “[T]he new generation of antitrust enforcers will not be bullied.”
Axios AM By Mike Allen ·Mar 10, 2022