Antitrust Policy - Should Big Tech Be Broken Up?

Antitrust Policy - Should Big Tech Be Broken Up?
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Antitrust Policy - Should Big Tech Be Broken Up?
Introduction
The antitrust policies in the United States can be traced back to the 19th century. The primary purpose of such laws and policies is to limit the power of specific industries or businesses from particular firms in the conquest of encouraging competition within the market. The basis of antitrust trust laws, especially in the United States, involves mergers and acquisitions that have limited power of controlling a particular market or formulation of monopolies. Mergers and acquisitions are standard methods that most big firms use to expand their operations. There are five different types of mergers and acquisitions in the business market. This essay explains the evolution of US antitrust policies in terms of statutes and interpretations.
Types of Mergers and Acquisitions
The first type of merger is a vertical merger which is common and done through a combination of two firms that offer similar products. Vertical mergers entail various supply chains in one conglomerate. The second is the horizontal mergers which differ from vertical in that they operate between two or more competitors. Technological companies leverage this kind of merger and acquisitions, making them dominant, and it applies to business markets with few competitors, therefore, encouraging horizontal mergers. Another type of merger is a conglomerate merger that occurs between organizations having different and unrelated business activities. The other merger is a market extension merger consisting of organizations that sell similar products but in a foreign market. The last type of merger is product extensions merger which involves two or more firms that operate with similar products and the same market or industry. An example of the product extensions merger is Broadcom, acquiring Mobilink Telecom to combine handset product designs with other wireless products (Freeman & Sykes, 2019). The antitrust policies in the business and technology industry have been operational and constantly evolving. Technology giants are aiming to acquire upcoming companies and dominate the market. An example is Amazon Corporation which wants to purchase Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Company (Freeman & Sykes, 2019). The United States regulations officers and antitrust advocates have noticed this trend and are particularly worried about Silicon Valley Giants like Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple (Abdela & Steinbaum, 2018).
General Trend in the Market
The big tech firms are amassing a lot of profits and have gained significant influence in the direction of the industry in the past 20 years. Although the American tech giants had been performing quite well, the advent of the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the dominance of these companies as isolated and bored people turned to smartphones and other technological equipment to kill the boredom. For example, in terms of stocks and shares, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook have mainly been traded in S&P 500. During this period, the five big tech companies had over 37 percent stocks of the S&P 500, while the other companies in the S&...