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Former antitrust officials said on Monday that regulators could review Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase, but are unlikely to file a lawsuit to block it.
Bill Baer, who headed the Justice Department’s antitrust division during the Obama administration, said that enforcement would “seem hard to see if there’s a risk to competition and consumers.” The massive $44 billion price tag will require Twitter and Mr. Musk to submit the deal for review by the Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission, the two agencies that regulate the acquisitions.
Officials from both companies promised to take a closer look at how mergers and acquisitions triggered concentration in the tech industry. The FTC has sued Facebook on the grounds that the company’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp eliminated potential future competitors.
But Mr Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is not the kind of deal the government usually opposes. The government most often intervenes when a company buys a competitor. It also sometimes challenges agreements where the purchase would unfairly benefit the buyer in another part of his business. Mr. Musk’s two major conglomerates – electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX – do not compete with Twitter, and it is unclear whether he will attempt to social network them in any way.
“It seems to me he currently has a large stake in two shipping companies,” said William Kovacic, former head of the FTC, “and it’s hard to see how much Twitter has to do with the two companies.”
A spokesperson for the Justice Department and FTC declined to comment.
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