United States of America: FTC requests information on acquisitions by select technology platforms (2010-2019)

On 11 February 2020, the Federal Trade Commission announced the issuance of Special Orders to five technology companies, ordering them to give information on earlier acquisitions not reported to federal antitrust agencies under the Hart-Scott-Rodino ("HSR") Act. The orders required Alphabet Inc. ("Alphabet," which includes Google), Amazon.com, Inc. ("Amazon"), Apple Inc. ("Apple"), Facebook, Inc. ("Facebook"), and Microsoft Corp. ("Microsoft") to provide information and documents on the terms, scope, structure, and purpose of transactions that each company completed between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2019. The orders were issued to assist the FTC in better understanding significant technology businesses' acquisition activity, including evaluating acquisition trends and transaction structure.