New Google and Facebook Inquiries

Re:New Google and Facebook Inquiries by TuringNYC on Friday September 06, 2019 @02:07PM (#20898093)

There is a bit of chicken-and-egg here because as a former tech co-founder, i'd argue that much of the risk of entrepreneurship was ameliorated knowing a larger player could acquire you if you do well. I wonder whether -- if FB/etc were not allowed to acquire budding successful startups -- whether

0. Founders would take the risk

1. Early engineers would take the risk

2. Angels/VCs would invest as much in them

In which case you get fewer/none Instagrams/WhatsApps, because the risk is so much higher if your outcomes are limited to IPO/cashflow-business/lifestyle

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Re:New Google and Facebook Inquiries by aNoob7000 on Friday September 06, 2019 @03:11PM (#20898821)

Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but I think anti-trust in the age of tech and free services needs to be tweaked a little.

Sure, Facebook can buy any company they like, but if it presents a danger to its core business like Instagram did, then the sale should not be allowed.

Maybe Instagram wouldn't have survived without being acquired by Facebook, but let the market decide.

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Re:New Google and Facebook Inquiries by outside1234 on Friday September 06, 2019 @03:36PM (#20899106)

This is why in the EU it is anti-competitive behavior that is targeted, not anti-trust.

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Re:New Google and Facebook Inquiries by asr on Friday September 06, 2019 @05:38PM (#20900153)

Actually the US and the EU both target anticompetitive behavior. The US law is older and so is call antitrust for historical reasons, not because of a legal difference.

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