FTC Finds Nonreported Acquisitions By Large Tech Firms Grew During 2010s

摘要

The Federal Trade Commission has released a staff report that found large tech companies increasingly engaged in nonreportable acquisitions during the last decade, often taking advantage of loopholes such as delayed compensation to officers of the acquired companies in the form of post-transaction employment. The report, which staff presented at the agency's Sept. 15 public online meeting, was the result of an FTC inquiry launched in 2020 into acquisitions by large tech firms during the 2010s that were not reported to federal antitrust authorities under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act's premerger review procedures. By the date that they closed, many such transactions ended up being large enough that they would have triggered the reporting requirement, according to the report.