OREANDA-NEWS. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is launching an investigation into the procurement of smaller companies made over the past ten years by the five largest US technology corporations: Alphabet (which owns Google), Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft.

The FTC requested from them “to provide information about prior acquisitions not reported to the antitrust agencies.” The giants are required to “provide information and documents on the terms, scope, structure, and purpose of transactions that each company consummated between Jan. 1, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2019.” The Commission intends to find out whether “large tech companies are making potentially anticompetitive acquisitions of nascent or potential competitors.”

“This initiative will enable the Commission to take a closer look at acquisitions in this important sector, and also evaluate whether the federal agencies are getting adequate notice of transactions that might harm competition,” the FTC Chairman Joseph Simons said. “This will help us continue to keep tech markets open and competitive, for the benefit of consumers.”