What are your thoughts on increased scrutiny on M&A for the Big Tech Companies affecting the liquidity of startup equity?
Meaning, if Big Tech can't buy startups because Big Brother doesn't let them, then how does that impact VC which is based on the principle of there eventually being some liquidity for their investments (which increasingly, are not IPOs).
The VC side isn't my area so I don't think I have very good thoughts on it. Perhaps somebody with more expertise can chime in. That said, there's lots of great work about financialization and antitrust coming out, and I should probably read up on it.
With that caveat, I think it's plausible that some startups are/were getting VC funding not because they were good businesses, but rather because they presented enough of a competitive threat to a big tech firm that there was a good chance of a large acquisition. The net effect of those acquisitions is probably to transfer some of the surplus from Big Tech companies into the VC/founder ecosystem. Is that good? Maybe for the founders and VCs. From a social perspective though, we want to ensure that startups can meaningfully contest incumbent firms' market positions, and that can't happen if all the startups get acquired before they get a chance to do so.
Meaning, if Big Tech can't buy startups because Big Brother doesn't let them, then how does that impact VC which is based on the principle of there eventually being some liquidity for their investments (which increasingly, are not IPOs).