Big Tech’s acquihire deals face regulatory scrutiny, outgoing EU antitrust official says

Big Tech deals to acquire skills rather than major companies may soon come under the regulatory scrutiny they previously avoided, the outgoing head of the European Commission’s antitrust unit said.

Acquihires, in which Big Tech hires start-ups’ founders and senior managers rather than acquire the companies, have been viewed by antitrust regulators as an attempt to evade merger rules.

“It is important to preserve effective competition,” Olivier Guersent, the director general at the competition unit, told Reuters in an interview earlier this week and…