Sam Bowman on UK takeover laws

Business Leader – ICLE Director of Competition Policy Sam Bowman was cited by Business Leader in a story about his co-authored report finding that proposed U.K. rules limiting Big Tech firms’ ability to engage in mergers and acquisitions would the nation’s startup economy. The full story is available here.

The authors also fear it could leave the UK relatively worse off as a place to set up a tech business if other countries, especially the United States, don’t follow suit. Sam Bowman, the report’s co-author, said: “The UK government has misjudged the prospects for a similar crackdown on tech M&A in the United States, and as a result may back Britain into a corner. If we proceed with such stringent rules blocking these deals, but the US does not, the UK will become a terrible place to found a tech startup, since it will be so much harder to be acquired here than it would be in Silicon Valley. Even the European Union is not proposing such anti-tech rules. The UK startup scene is something to be proud of – it would be a profound mistake to make its life so much harder, and leave the UK as a global outlier.”