rapsuperstar31 said:
I wouldn't say the FTC has no power, they have actually flat out closed down some business in the last few years under Biden's appointed ftc chair Linda Kahn. Senators like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren tweeted they were happy with the ftc blocking the deal. |
In this specific case I would say that, but what I mean by that is the FTC literally doesn't have the power to block an acquisition, they don't technically "approve" deals either in a legal sense, all the FTC does is decide whether to take a company to court or not and it's the federal courts who decide whether to block a deal or not.
Unlike the CMA or EC who actually do have the power to block a deal and don't need the courts to do it for them.
All FTC does is delay things which is a headache, companies don't want the looming threat of a lawsuit hanging over their head, so they wait it out, but the FTC delays things by putting things through their internal courts first (which again, don't have the power to block a deal, they only make a suggestion whether FTC should go through with it) and by the time it actually reaches the federal courts, we're a year longer than the planned closure.
Which is why Microsoft was going to close over the FTC, make them actually back up their words, rather that dragging it out through the internal courts which have no power, they'd force FTC to actually take Microsoft to a federal court (which FTC doesn't want to do, because if they did think they could beat Microsoft in the federal courts, they would have done it already).
Bernie and Warren is eh, they'd praise FTC if they blocked Microsoft acquiring a $10m company, Lol.