Towards A Technological Overhaul of American Antitrust.

The digital revolution is exactly the sort of systemic shock that the antitrust agencies need to embrace in creating a new organizational structure and way of thinking As an initial step, it entails a better relationship with outside parties Often, companies are unwilling to meet regularly with enforcers because they are concerned that such meetings will lead to additional scrutiny by these enforcers Business units in particular are wary of meetings with the government to explain issues broadly Not surprisingly, it is often the case that wherever there are public hearings, it is outside law firms and economists that serve as interlocutors between companies and the antitrust authorities Hence, the issue is one of trust building between enforcers and companies. Based on a national representative sample of over 850,000 U. S. firms, the survey finds that over 90% of the responding firms store information in digital format for at least one business function, and over 54% purchase at least one cloud service if they use information technology (IT). Larger firms benefit because they can acquire successful start-ups, providing the larger firms with dynamic capabilities and complementary assets, while smaller firms benefit from being acquired 16. RECENT OUTCRY FOR ANTITRUST reform argues that U S markets have become more concentrated, that large firms' profit margins have increased, and that part of these changes may be attributed to lax antitrust enforcement since the 1960s. [Extracted from the article]