Just a few years ago, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fought to block Microsoft's $70 billion giga-acquisition of Activision Blizzard, arguing that the deal is bad for competition, customers, and workers. Now, wouldn't you know, industry consolidation is bad no matter who it is that's doing the consolidating, and the FTC's former chair chimed into the recent discourse to basically say 'I told you so.'
"Microsoft's acquisition of Activision has been followed by significant price hikes and layoffs, harming both gamers and developers," Lina Khan, whose FTC moved to block the acquisition, recently tweeted. "As we've seen across sectors, increasing market consolidation and increasing prices often go hand-in-hand. As dominant firms become too-big-to-care, they can make things worse for their customers without having to worry about the consequences."
