Apple, Facebook and Google Have Lost the Monopoly Argument
Even the Americans have woken up to the need to stop Big Tech snapping up any promising rivals. But big fines are more likely than breakups.
Trust-busters want to stop Mark Zuckerberg and his ilk from snapping up the next Instagram. They'll need to up their game.
Photographer: AMY OSBORNE/AFPThe future of the tech industry was once decided by messianic entrepreneurs (assisted by venture capitalists and assorted Silicon Valley boosters) pumping out their sermons to rapt crowds in cavernous arenas. Today it’s the fustier crew of competition regulators and policy wonks – more commonly spotted in carpeted conference rooms – who appear to have seized the pulpit.
Investors in Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. will no doubt testify to this shift in power after the threat of U.S. antitrust action caused their shares to fall at the start of this week (Apple’s have rallied slightly).