US Is Scrutinizing Big Tech Talent Acquisitions, FTC Chief Says

The US Federal Trade Commission is taking a closer look at moves by major tech companies to hire away the employees of a startup instead of buying the venture outright, the agency’s Chairman Andrew Ferguson said, addressing a growing practice seen as a way to avoid antitrust review.

“We are beginning to examine these acqui-hires to make sure they are not an attempt to get around” the agency’s merger review process, Ferguson said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television.