How Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have used extensive acquisitions to expand into new areas, creating new revenue streams and outflanking competitors
You're probably reading this on a browser built by Apple or Google. If you're on a smartphone, it's almost certain those two companies built the operating system.
Washington Post
Context & Ripple Effects
The Washington Post piece lands on a well-documented record: Google has bought 270 companies since 2001 and Facebook 92 since 2007, several of them direct or nascent competitors, yet only one Google acquisition has ever been formally challenged by US authorities. The four companies profiled have each used that freedom differently — Amazon entering new markets, Facebook neutralizing rivals, Apple and Google extending operating-system and browser reach — per the relationships mapped across this coverage.
What makes the timing notable is the acceleration: through June 30, 2020, Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft announced 27 acquisitions, up 29% year over year and the fastest pace since 2015, all while antitrust scrutiny was building. That M&A machine feeds a concentration story already visible in public markets, where the same five firms held roughly 18% of the S&P 500 by value.
First-order effects
Startups and adjacent-market incumbents now face the buy-or-compete decision earlier: an acquisition lets Amazon, Apple, Facebook, or Google absorb a nascent competitor before it scales, converting would-be threats into revenue streams.
Second-order effects
Regulators are the obvious forced responder — the Bloomberg Law reporting ties the record acquisition pace directly to antitrust scrutiny, and the near-zero enforcement record on Google's deals is precisely what invites a policy correction.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, acquisition-led growth compounds into structural market weight — the ~18% S&P 500 share shows how serial buying concentrates both competition and index exposure — making serial-acquisition review the central regulatory question for platform industries rather than a case-by-case one.
The trend: The largest platform companies are acquiring capability faster than antitrust enforcement challenges it, turning serial M&A into their primary engine of market entry and moat-building.
Anyone else sick of “Big Tech” articles somehow completely forgetting about Microsoft, either the #1 or #2 Big Tech company by market cap? I mean, what the hell. Many people reading the article are doing so from Windows OS. I'd bet $$ the authors wrote the article on MS software.…
How Big Tech got so big: Hundreds of acquisitions. This report shows big tech leveraging on crack. We're about 20 years late and limited globally in our thinking about markets in market power and acquisitions prohibitions in the CCA. Time for a rethink. https://www.washingtonpost…
I mean, this is a fascinating article by @chrisalcantara @kevinschaul @GerritD and @ReedAlbergotti - but how do you completely leave out Microsoft? https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Sometimes, innovation is just having enough cash to buy other people's stuff. This is a really interesting look back at how acquisitions helped build Big Tech. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
They all followed a similar pattern. First, they became dominant in their original business. Then they grew tentacles, making acquistions in new sectors to add revenue streams and outflank competitors #Facebook #Apple #Amazon #Google https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google - four companies that dominate most of our digital lives - are under intense scrutiny by anti-trust lawmakers in Congress. What helped them grow? Acquisitions. Hundreds of them, over decades. And they're not slowing down. https://www.washingtonp…
Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google dominate most of our digital lives, but they didn't get there alone. @kevinschaul, @GerritD, @reedalbergotti and I show how hundreds of acquisitions propelled these companies to become the tech behemoths they are today. https://www.washingtonpos…
Strong piece w/beautiful graphics in WaPo just dropped on GAFA's M&A spree. It's an important reminder that Google isn't an innovative company, but a search ads ATM which enables Google to put its logo on and lay claim to smaller companies' innovations. https://www.washingtonpost…
Big new project! We broke down the 607 acquisitions that helped turn Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook into the sprawling behemoths they are today. By @chrisalcantara @kevinschaul @GerritD and @ReedAlbergotti https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...