Competition - Mergers, Acquisitions, and “Partnerships”

Guiding Questions

• How does the current wave of AI investments and partnerships by Big Tech companies challenge traditional merger review frameworks? What tools do regulators have to address these challenges?
• What role should potential future market concentration play in evaluating current AI mergers and partnerships, particularly given the rapid pace of technological development?

Guest

Thom Lambert

Required

Facts

• Brian Fung and Catherine Thorbecke, Lina Khan’s rise was heralded as an antitrust revolution. Now she has to pull it off CNN (Oct. 17, 2023).
• Anousha Sakoui, Anirban Sen and Kane Wu, Dealmakers eye $4 trillion-plus M&A haul in 2025 on Trump boost, Reuters (Dec. 19, 2024).
• Alexis Keenan, Trump 1.0 was as tough on M&A as Biden. Trump 2.0 may not be different, AOL (Nov. 12, 2024).
• Paul Sawers, Big Tech companies are plowing money into AI startups, which could help them dodge antitrust concerns, Tech Crunch (May 24, 2024).

Law

• [skim] Competition Counts, FTC (May, 2015).
• Cornell Law Wex, antitrust laws, (Oct. 2024).
• [skim pages 1-4] Updated Merger Guidelines, DOJ (Dec. 2023).
• Steven C. Sunshine et al., DOJ and FTC Release Final 2023 Merger Guidelines Formalizing Aggressive Merger Enforcement Playbook, Skadden (Dec. 21, 2024).

Application

• Joint Statement on Competition in Generative AI Foundation Models and AI Products, FTC and DOJ (Jul. 23, 2024).
• FTC Launches Inquiry into Generative AI Investments and Partnerships, FTC (Jan. 25, 2024).
• Kif Leswing, FTC Chair Lina Khan takes victory lap on blocking Nvidia-Arm merger, CNBC (Feb. 27, 2024).
• [pages 40-50] Tejas Narechania & Ganesh Sitaraman, An Anti Monopoly approach to Governing Artificial Intelligence, Vanderbilt Law School (Oct. 2023).