REUTERS: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Facebook Inc acquisitions were aimed at buying up potential rivals before they could become a threat to the social media company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company's acquisition practices are the main focus of the probe, as the FTC looks into Facebook buying technology-based startups to keep them from challenging it, the report https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftc-antitrust-probe-of-facebook-scrutinizes-its-acquisitions-11564683965?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1 said. Facebook has purchased dozens of companies over the years, including messaging company WhatsApp and image sharing platform Instagram.
Last month, Facebook settled an FTC probe into allegations of inappropriately sharing data of 87 million users with the now-defunct British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. Facebook will pay a record-breaking US$5 billion fine. In Washington, Democrats and Republicans alike have expressed growing concern about the size of the largest tech firms and their market power. Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has called for breaking up companies like Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook and unwinding prior acquisitions.
In July, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel pressed executives from the four firms about their competitive practices and noted that Google, Facebook, Amazon had a rising share of key markets.It is rare for the U.S. government to seek to undo a consummated deal. The most famous case in recent memory is the government's effort to break up Microsoft Corp . The Justice Department won a preliminary victory in 2000 but was reversed on appeal.