FTC tightens merger approval process in blow to Big Tech

Democrats at the Federal Trade Commission voted Wednesday to probe certain mergers more closely, which could lead to greater limits and uncertainty in corporate acquisitions of new startups, particularly within the tech industry.

In a partisan split, the trade commission, which has three Democratic commissioners and two Republican ones, voted 3-2 to end a 1995 agency policy that had limited the situations in which companies must give advance notice and seek pre-approval from the FTC for mergers.