Calls to break up today’s top tech companies rely on a flawed assumption that the tech sector is static. As a post in Truth on the Market points out, nearly every prediction of a company as an “unassailable monopoly” has been wrong: Palm, AOL, MySpace, Barnes & Noble, and Blockbuster were all deemed unstoppable at […]
Yesterday, Penn Law professor and antitrust expert Herbert Hovenkamp published an opinion in The Regulatory Review addressing Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s recent call for the “break up” of leading tech services. As Hovenkamp notes, “Senator Warren’s proposals seek to protect older technologies at the expense of consumers and workers.” More on his arguments below. Monopolies are […]
Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) unveiled a proposal to “break up Big Tech.” Her proposal has been met with swift criticism from startup investors, experts, academics, and tech industry influencers saying that the proposal would: —Do more harm than good; —Stifle competition and set arbitrary thresholds; —Lead to increased prices; —And not solve the issues […]
Last week, Sen. Warren unveiled a proposal to “break up Big Tech,” arguing businesses that didn’t exist 25 years ago “are among the most valuable and well-known companies in the world.” Experts from across the political spectrum, academia, and the tech industry weighed in on the damage the plan would cause to American consumers and […]
This morning, ideas contributor for WIRED and author Antonio Garcia Martinez argued that the mantra “data is the new oil” is deceptively simple and does not accurately describe data’s worth to technology companies. More from Martinez and other leaders below: While data may be internally valuable, it isn’t a fungible commodity. “Sure, you could maybe […]
Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Makan Delrahim’s latest speech answers questions raised by House Antitrust Chair Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) on whether or not antitrust law should be changed to cover the zero-cost services of tech platforms. Delrahim characterized critics’ proposals of “throwing out the long-standing consumer welfare standard and crafting new rules ” to […]
At State of the Net 2019 in Washington, D.C. yesterday, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Makan Delrahim expressed a different view to Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and reminded critics of the strength of the consumer welfare standard and the need for caution in enforcement. Highlights from his fireside chat with Variety’s Ted Johnson, as well […]
Earlier today, Richard Epstein published an extensive review of Tim Wu’s new book and overall antitrust framework, arguing Wu’s criticism of leading tech services “overstates the benefits and ignores the high costs of an aggressive application of the antitrust laws.” Epstein is the just the latest to rebut Wu’s arguments—Alec Stapp of the Niskanen Center […]
Earlier today, Georgetown’s Larry Downes and the Brookings Institution’s Blair Levin published an op-ed in the Washington Post, asking if the recent tech backlash was “going askew.” Downes and Levin point out that critics of leading tech services propose only vague alternatives to the consumer welfare standard, and that the tech sector is in fact […]
A new Crunchbase analysis finds venture investment in the tech sector continues to thrive. 2018 was a “year of superlatives,” with the most money invested in the highest number of private tech company financing events ever and the largest VC deals in history. As Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield noted in 2015, “It might be the best […]
Hostility to innovation and technology diminishes the incredible Internet-enabled opportunities that leading tech services provide: empowering consumers, driving prices down and increasing choice, and providing platforms to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses. It has given us a golden era of entertainment, knowledge, and everything from fashion startups, to booming mom and pop stores, to the latest app.
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