The organizations encourage the agencies to preserve a robust M&A market for entrepreneurs looking for partners to scale their businesses.
Washington D.C., Apr. 21st, 2022 – The Developers Alliance, alongside ACT | The App Association, Engine, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council and TechNet, submitted joint comments in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division’s (DOJ) joint agency Request for Information on Merger Enforcement.
In their comments, the organizations note how the startup and small businesses they represent employ tens of millions of Americans and are responsible for over $11.5 Trillion in U.S. GDP. While the groups share the FTC and DOJ goals of protecting competition, small businesses often rely on being acquired by firms with the resources and skills to scale a proven product or service to the advantage of consumers.
“The U.S. economy and consumers have benefited tremendously from the creativity of individuals when combined with the resources and institutional knowledge of businesses that acquire their innovations. A merger that helps produce better products or services for consumers is both a natural and beneficial end for some companies and is healthy from a competition policy perspective, a fact that existing merger enforcement guidance reflects.”
The organizations also worry that political considerations may be playing an outsize role over objective market analysis in defining the need and direction of potential merger guideline changes.
The following quote can be attributed to Bruce Gustafson, President, and CEO of the Developers Alliance.
“Success in the digital economy is a game of both innovation and scale. While some entrepreneurs have the skills, appetite, and resources for both, many others prefer to be acquired by growth experts so their ideas can reach a mass market. Far from harming consumers and entrepreneurs, existing M&A guidelines have been a positive contributor to the software companies success.”
The submission can be found here.
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About The Developers Alliance
The Developers Alliance is the world’s leading advocate for software developers and the companies invested in their success. Alliance members include industry leaders in consumer, enterprise, industrial, and emerging software development, and a global network of more than 70,000 developers.
