拜登政府對企業(yè)收購的態(tài)度預(yù)計將比特朗普總統(tǒng)更強(qiáng)硬,同時還將繼續(xù)近期的一系列針對大型科技公司的反壟斷調(diào)查。
霍華德大學(xué)法學(xué)院反壟斷專家安德魯?蓋維爾說:“反壟斷法和相關(guān)政策尚待修正。修正的程度仍有待觀察,并將受到政府班子和法院人員構(gòu)成的影響?!?/p>
2017年,特朗普政府的反壟斷監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)在助理司法部長馬卡恩·德拉希姆的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下,曾極力阻止AT&T收購時代華納,結(jié)果在法庭上遭遇慘敗。不過,總的看來,與上屆政府相比,特朗普政府的司法部對企業(yè)合并數(shù)據(jù)的調(diào)查要求(這種調(diào)查將推遲合并進(jìn)程,以便監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)更細(xì)致地審查)減少了19%,提出阻止并購的案件減少了18%。
特朗普政府甚至還多次起草法律意見書,反對其他機(jī)構(gòu)的反壟斷訴訟,例如聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會對高通的訴訟。與此相對照,德拉希姆的團(tuán)隊在任期將盡時高調(diào)發(fā)起對谷歌和Facebook的反壟斷訴訟,表明大型科技公司的集權(quán)令共和黨人和民主黨人都感到不安。
這名即將離任的助理司法部長在本月早些時候的《財富》頭腦風(fēng)暴科技大會上表示,“我們采取的方式讓人們意識到,不必害怕科技公司,你們可以合法地審查它們,這種方式讓員工擁有了調(diào)查的能力?!钡吕D费a(bǔ)充說,他希望在拜登政府的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下,這場對抗大型科技公司的戰(zhàn)斗能夠“繼續(xù)下去,但不要過分激烈”。
斯坦福大學(xué)法學(xué)教授馬克·萊姆利指出,拜登沒有將反壟斷或打擊大型科技公司作為其競選綱領(lǐng)的主要內(nèi)容,但他已經(jīng)提名了幾名在奧巴馬執(zhí)政期間處理過反壟斷案件的律師進(jìn)入自己的過渡政府。比爾·貝爾曾在奧巴馬政府中扮演如今德拉希姆的角色,現(xiàn)在是拜登的聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會過渡團(tuán)隊的一員,同屬這個團(tuán)隊的還有喬治城大學(xué)法學(xué)院的隱私專家勞拉·莫伊教授。非營利機(jī)構(gòu)Public Knowledge的高級顧問、奧巴馬時代的司法部要員吉尼·基梅爾曼目前在拜登的司法部過渡團(tuán)隊中。
“從這些先期舉措判斷,他們對反壟斷的審查可能會比特朗普政府更廣。但這并不是伊麗莎白·沃倫參議員式的‘把它們通通拆解’的激進(jìn)論調(diào),不會完全倒向民粹主義?!?/p>
面對科技行業(yè)的并購浪潮,特朗普政府基本上袖手旁觀。英特爾以150億美元收購Mobileye,IBM以340億美元收購RedHat,這些大型交易都沒有遭到反對,甚至T-Mobile以240億美元并購Sprint案最終也獲得批準(zhǔn)。此外,微軟、Adobe、PayPal、Salesforce等公司的小型收購案同樣沒有受到嚴(yán)格審查。
Edward Jones的分析師戴維?赫格爾表示,據(jù)華爾街預(yù)計,對四五家最大的科技公司的審查將繼續(xù),但不會過于嚴(yán)厲?!霸谶@個問題上,兩黨似乎是有共識的。至少就目前而言,投資者不必?fù)?dān)心這些還要拖上數(shù)年的案件會出現(xiàn)戲劇性結(jié)果?!?/p>
例如,谷歌在過去三個月里受到了三起單獨的反壟斷調(diào)查,但在此期間股價卻上揚了16%。
赫格爾認(rèn)為,這種情況不會隨著拜登接替特朗普而發(fā)生很大改變?!半p方都覺得需要采取行動,所以雖然在細(xì)節(jié)上可能略有不同,但我不覺得會出現(xiàn)驚人變化。沒有人會撤銷這些案件,這一點是肯定的。”(財富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:胡萌琦
拜登政府對企業(yè)收購的態(tài)度預(yù)計將比特朗普總統(tǒng)更強(qiáng)硬,同時還將繼續(xù)近期的一系列針對大型科技公司的反壟斷調(diào)查。
霍華德大學(xué)法學(xué)院反壟斷專家安德魯?蓋維爾說:“反壟斷法和相關(guān)政策尚待修正。修正的程度仍有待觀察,并將受到政府班子和法院人員構(gòu)成的影響?!?/p>
2017年,特朗普政府的反壟斷監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)在助理司法部長馬卡恩·德拉希姆的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下,曾極力阻止AT&T收購時代華納,結(jié)果在法庭上遭遇慘敗。不過,總的看來,與上屆政府相比,特朗普政府的司法部對企業(yè)合并數(shù)據(jù)的調(diào)查要求(這種調(diào)查將推遲合并進(jìn)程,以便監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)更細(xì)致地審查)減少了19%,提出阻止并購的案件減少了18%。
特朗普政府甚至還多次起草法律意見書,反對其他機(jī)構(gòu)的反壟斷訴訟,例如聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會對高通的訴訟。與此相對照,德拉希姆的團(tuán)隊在任期將盡時高調(diào)發(fā)起對谷歌和Facebook的反壟斷訴訟,表明大型科技公司的集權(quán)令共和黨人和民主黨人都感到不安。
這名即將離任的助理司法部長在本月早些時候的《財富》頭腦風(fēng)暴科技大會上表示,“我們采取的方式讓人們意識到,不必害怕科技公司,你們可以合法地審查它們,這種方式讓員工擁有了調(diào)查的能力?!钡吕D费a(bǔ)充說,他希望在拜登政府的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下,這場對抗大型科技公司的戰(zhàn)斗能夠“繼續(xù)下去,但不要過分激烈”。
斯坦福大學(xué)法學(xué)教授馬克·萊姆利指出,拜登沒有將反壟斷或打擊大型科技公司作為其競選綱領(lǐng)的主要內(nèi)容,但他已經(jīng)提名了幾名在奧巴馬執(zhí)政期間處理過反壟斷案件的律師進(jìn)入自己的過渡政府。比爾·貝爾曾在奧巴馬政府中扮演如今德拉希姆的角色,現(xiàn)在是拜登的聯(lián)邦貿(mào)易委員會過渡團(tuán)隊的一員,同屬這個團(tuán)隊的還有喬治城大學(xué)法學(xué)院的隱私專家勞拉·莫伊教授。非營利機(jī)構(gòu)Public Knowledge的高級顧問、奧巴馬時代的司法部要員吉尼·基梅爾曼目前在拜登的司法部過渡團(tuán)隊中。
“從這些先期舉措判斷,他們對反壟斷的審查可能會比特朗普政府更廣。但這并不是伊麗莎白·沃倫參議員式的‘把它們通通拆解’的激進(jìn)論調(diào),不會完全倒向民粹主義?!?/p>
面對科技行業(yè)的并購浪潮,特朗普政府基本上袖手旁觀。英特爾以150億美元收購Mobileye,IBM以340億美元收購RedHat,這些大型交易都沒有遭到反對,甚至T-Mobile以240億美元并購Sprint案最終也獲得批準(zhǔn)。此外,微軟、Adobe、PayPal、Salesforce等公司的小型收購案同樣沒有受到嚴(yán)格審查。
Edward Jones的分析師戴維?赫格爾表示,據(jù)華爾街預(yù)計,對四五家最大的科技公司的審查將繼續(xù),但不會過于嚴(yán)厲?!霸谶@個問題上,兩黨似乎是有共識的。至少就目前而言,投資者不必?fù)?dān)心這些還要拖上數(shù)年的案件會出現(xiàn)戲劇性結(jié)果?!?/p>
例如,谷歌在過去三個月里受到了三起單獨的反壟斷調(diào)查,但在此期間股價卻上揚了16%。
赫格爾認(rèn)為,這種情況不會隨著拜登接替特朗普而發(fā)生很大改變。“雙方都覺得需要采取行動,所以雖然在細(xì)節(jié)上可能略有不同,但我不覺得會出現(xiàn)驚人變化。沒有人會撤銷這些案件,這一點是肯定的?!保ㄘ敻恢形木W(wǎng))
譯者:胡萌琦
The Biden administration is expected to take a tougher stance against acquisitions than President Trump’s while continuing a recent flurry of antitrust cases against Big Tech.
“Antitrust law and policy are poised for a course correction,” says Andrew Gavil, an antitrust expert at Howard University School of Law. “The degree of that correction remains to be seen and will be influenced by both politics and the composition of the courts.”
Trump’s antitrust regulators, led by Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, loudly tried stopping AT&T from acquiring Time Warner in 2017—only to suffer a stinging defeat in court. Overall, however, Trump’s Justice Department made 19% fewer requests for data about mergers—which delay closings to allow regulators to take a closer look—and filed 18% fewer cases to block mergers than the prior administration.
From time to time, the Trump administration even wrote legal opinions opposing antitrust lawsuits from other agencies, like the Federal Trade Commission’s case against Qualcomm. On the other hand, at the end of its tenure, Delrahim’s team did file high-profile antitrust suits against Google and Facebook, signaling that the concentrated power of big tech companies was alarming to Republicans as well as Democrats.
“The approach we took—that this is legitimate, to look at it and not be afraid of the tech companies—opened up the ability of the staff to investigate,” the outgoing assistant AG said at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference earlier this month. Delrahim added that he hopes under the Biden administration the battle against Big Tech “continues, but is not overzealous.”
Biden didn’t make antitrust or cracking down on Big Tech major parts of his campaign, but he has named to his transition a few lawyers who worked on antitrust cases during the Obama administration, notes Stanford Law professor Mark Lemley. Bill Baer, who had Delrahim’s role under Obama, is part of Biden’s transition team for the FTC, along with Laura Moy, a privacy expert and professor at Georgetown Law School. Gene Kimmelman, senior adviser at nonprofit Public Knowledge and an Obama Justice Department veteran, is on Biden’s DOJ transition team.
“Based on these early steps, it looks like they will take a more expansive view of antitrust than the Trump administration,” Lemley says. “But this is not the radical ‘break them all up’ view you might associate with Sen. Elizabeth Warren. This is not the full swing towards populism.”
The Trump administration has done little to slow the wave of tech mergers. Large deals like Intel’s $15 billion Mobileye purchase and IBM’s $34 billion RedHat buy garnered no opposition, and even T-Mobile's $24 billion merger with Sprint won approval eventually. Similarly, there have been no tough reviews of smaller acquisitions by Microsoft, Adobe, PayPal, Salesforce, and others.
Wall Street expects continued scrutiny of the four or five largest tech companies but not all out warfare, says analyst David Heger, at Edward Jones. “It seems to be the one issue that is bipartisan in nature,” he says. “And at least for now, investors are not anticipating something dramatic out of these cases, which are going to take years to play out.”
For example, Google has been hit with three separate antitrust cases over the past three months, but its stock is up 16% during that period.
Biden taking over from Trump won’t change that calculus much, Heger says. “Both sides feel action needs to be taken, so the flavors may be slightly different in the finer points, but I don’t see a dramatic change,” he says. “Certainly no one is pulling back on these cases.”