Tech Stocks Tumble After DOJ Launches Broad Antitrust Review Of Big Tech
“I don’t think big is necessarily bad, but I think a lot of people wonder how such huge behemoths that now exist in Silicon Valley have taken shape under the nose of the antitrust enforcers,” Mr. Barr told senators. “You can win that place in the marketplace without violating the antitrust laws, but I want to find out more about that dynamic.”
Just one week after the tech world's most visible conservative and entrepreneur to back President Donald Trump, Peter Thiel, slammed "treasonous" Google for agreeing to work closely with China, trying to get its search engine back into the Chinese market, while deciding to let a US defense department contract that gave the military access to its artificial intelligence tools lapse, Thiel's lament has made its way to the very top, and moments ago the WSJ reported that the DOJ was opening a broad antitrust review into whether dominant technology firms are unlawfully stifling competition, adding a new Washington threat for the FANGs
According to WSJ sources, the review is geared toward examining the practices of online platforms that dominate internet search, social media and retail services; the report notes that the new antitrust inquiry is "the strongest signal yet of Attorney General William Barr’s deep interest in the tech sector, and it could ratchet up the already considerable regulatory pressures facing the top U.S. tech firms."
To be sure, the review, which is designed to go above and beyond recent plans for scrutinizing the tech sector that were crafted by the department and the Federal Trade Commission, has certainly spooked investors and the US mega tech names have promptly tumbled after hours, dragging the Nasdaq lower.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-07-23/tech-stocks-tumble-after-doj-announces-broad-antitrust-review-big-tech