US regulators wary of Big Tech swallowing startups - NewsBreak

US anti-trust regulators signalled Wednesday greater scrutiny of Big Tech giants' smaller acquisitions, a potential new avenue in efforts to curb the dominance of the companies. Google's parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft carried out hundreds of deals in recent years that were too small to be reported to authorities for approval, the Federal Trade Commission heard at its meeting. Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter said regulators need this type of broader perspective, and that reviewing acquisitions individually was insufficient. "I think of serial acquisitions as a Pac-Man strategy: each individual merger, viewed independently, may not seem to have a significant impact," her prepared comments said.