Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook used ‘killer acquisitions’ to smite rivals

A US House of Representatives panel looking into abuses of market power by four big technology companies found they used “killer acquisitions” to smite rivals, charged exorbitant fees and forced small businesses into “oppressive” contracts in the name of profit. The antitrust subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee recommended that Alphabet’s Google, Apple, Amazon. com and Facebook - with a combined market value of over $5 trillion (€4.25 trillion) - should not both control and compete in related businesses. The panel’s report broadly recommended structural separations but stopped short of saying a specific company should be broken up. The scathing 449-page report - the result of the first...