US Is Scrutinizing Big Tech Talent Acquisitions, FTC Chief Says

The US Federal Trade Commission is taking a closer look at moves by major tech companies to hire away the employees of a startup instead of buying the venture outright, the agency’s Chairman Andrew Ferguson said, addressing a growing practice seen as a way to avoid antitrust review.

“We are beginning to examine these acqui-hires to make sure they are not an attempt to get around” the agency’s merger review process, Ferguson said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

Ferguson’s comments signaled the Trump administration’s focus on the wave of partnerships struck by Silicon Valley’s ...