FTC chairman Joe Simons, who is leading a broad review of the technology sector, said in an interview Tuesday that breaking up a company is challenging, but could be the right remedy to rein in dominant companies and restore competition.[WASHINGTON] The head of the US Federal Trade Commission said he's prepared to break up major technology platforms if necessary by undoing their past mergers as his agency investigates whether companies including Facebook Inc are harming competition.
Mr Simons is overseeing a tech task force to examine conduct in the industry and could move to unwind mergers if investigators find the deals were anticompetitive. The agency has opened a broad investigation into Facebook, including whether the company acquired startups to thwart competition, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr Simons said an agreement between the FTC and the Justice Department to divide scrutiny of the tech industry is based on specific conduct, not on the companies themselves. One company could potentially be investigated by both agencies, though he declined to provide details about their agreement. "It is bizarre to take these enormously complicated institutions and enterprises and have two separate teams of analysts looking at the same enterprise," Mr Kovacic said."It will be a source of real frustration and confusion for the companies if that's how they're dividing things unless there's cooperation."