Big Tech's little mergers draw more U.S. antitrust scrutiny

FILE PHOTO: The logos of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google in a combination photo/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Federal Trade Commission staff presented data on Wednesday on small acquisitions by five big technology companies, and the agency scrapped guidelines on vertical mergers which combine a company with a supplier -- both steps indicating plans to be tougher on deals.

Following a study begun during the Trump administration, the FTC staff found that Facebook, Alphabet's Google, Amazon.com, Apple and Microsoft together had 616 acquisitions from 2010 to 2019 that were above $1 million but too small to be reported to antitrust agencies, among other findings.