Facebook’s stealth M&A puts focus on deals under antitrust radar

Facebook’s acquisition strategy was targeted Thursday in a new antitrust complaint filed by the US Federal Trade Commission, which said the company has illegally maintained a monopoly in social media by buying companies it sees as competitive threats. — AP

Last year, Facebook Inc did something US technology giants have done countless times before: It bought a smaller company and closed the deal without notifying competition regulators.

But this transaction – the US$400mil (RM1.69bil) acquisition of image library Giphy Inc – was particularly bold. At the time, Facebook was under investigation by antitrust enforcers for what the government says was an illegal practice of buying companies in order to eliminate them as potential threats to its monopoly power.