Data from Refinitiv shows that some of the world’s biggest technology companies have spent twice as much as they did in 2020 to take over smaller rivals.
Technology companies spent at least $264 billion to take over smaller rivals worth less than $1 billion in 2021.
Moreover, since the beginning of 2021, technology companies have completed a total of 9,222 transactions in which they have acquired start-ups worth less than $1 billion.
To shed more light on the way large technology companies acquire smaller companies in order to curb competition, the FTC released the results of a technology M/A showing that between January 2010 and December 2019, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft made 819 acquisitions that were not registered.
Regarding the acquisition of small start-ups and plans to eliminate competition, FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter said, “I think of serial acquisitions as a Pac-Man strategy: Each individual merger, viewed independently, may not seem to have a significant impact, but the collective impact of hundreds of smaller acquisitions can lead to a monopolistic behemoth.”
For more information, read the original story in Arstechnica.