As the Antitrust Debate Heats Up, It Could Have a Chilling Effect

Here’s one piece of antitrust news you might have missed last week, amid revelations that the U.S. government is scrutinizing four of the largest tech companies: Mexico said it objected to Walmart Inc.’s $225 million acquisition of a grocery delivery startup called Cornershop.

Walmart’s Mexico business, nicknamed Walmex, is the country's biggest supermarket chain, and the bid to expand its online shopping business there fits with the parent company’s larger strategy. Cornershop was founded in San Francisco and raised money from Accel and other venture capitalists before turning its full attention to Latin America. The move by Mexico’s competition agency to scuttle the deal is a warning shot to the technology industry that antitrust anxiety isn’t exclusively an American phenomenon.