US regulators unveil antitrust roadmap with Big Tech in crosshairs

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Joe Biden's administration has approached many deals, especially in the technology sector. The U.S. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have mounted an unprecedented number of legal challenges to mergers since Biden came to office in 2021.

Their success in court has been mixed, with two losses recorded just last week in their attempts to scupper Microsoft Corp's $69 billion deal to buy video game maker Activision Blizzard Inc and to undo a merger in the sugar industry. During the Biden administration, the FTC also lost a bid to stop Meta from buying a virtual reality content maker and another in cancer detection. The Justice Department lost a merger in the insurance industry but won an effort to stop a book publisher merger.

Several challenges are scheduled to go before judges in the next few months, including the Justice Department's fight against JetBlue Airways Corp's purchase of Spirit Airlines Inc . The 51 pages of guidelines by the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission described, without naming them, deals such as Amazon.com's purchase of video doorbell Ring in 2018, and said the antitrust agencies should scrutinize them. The concern is that Ring's competitors are sold on Amazon.com, giving Amazon the incentive to favor Ring over competitors.

The guidelines also said a transaction should not eliminate a potential entrant in a concentrated market or create a situation in which a firm buys a company that provides inputs for the acquirer's competitors. Deal advisers said companies had already braced for a tough antitrust regime under Biden and some had been emboldened by the regulators' recent court losses. «The courts are the ultimate deciders, and the courts are guided by precedent and