Big Tech Takes a Hit as Antitrust Zeal Spreads to the U.S.
Silicon Valley giants have dodged strict regulation for years, but they’re the perfect target in a heated political season, and investors are spooked.
Washington—and specifically its antitrust power—was back on investors’ radar with a vengeance this week, erasing in a single trading day almost $140 billion in the market value of the big four tech companies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google parent Alphabet. Combined with the uncertainty caused by spreading trade tensions— Mexico and India were added to a list of targets that remains dominated by China—and the need to watch for presidential tweets at all hours, the reports of potential antitrust investigations into the four companies served to remind investors just how much the game has changed under the current administration.
“This is sort of a gut punch to investors at the exact time that you did not need it, given the China worries,” Dan Ives, an equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Bloomberg TV. “Part of the problem that I think Apple is facing, as well as other tech players, is what’s the ballgame and what are the rules? Is this a baseball game where we’re in the third or the first? I think that’s the frustration.”