[pravinva]

This is not anti competitive behaviour. In fact, this IS competition. Competition means all sorts of actions that lead to me having more customers than you. The only problem is when the entrenched business use govt/lobbying/abusive patent law to get this done. Buying out competition and trying to enter a low barrier to entry business is the very definition of competition. Suck it up

[TulliusCicero]

Agreed, I'm having a hard time seeing how this is anti-competitive. It sounds like they're just saying that tech giants are competing very successfully by virtue of being really big and having lots of money. Paying people really well, buying out startups with good tech, competing with startups, etc.; none of that sounds illegal, or even unethical.

There's also an argument to be made that big tech giants have some benefits for startup ecosystems. The option of being bought out, for example, acts as a safety net, so that even if your company doesn't have explosive growth that lets it go public, well at least you'll get something out of it. Similarly, having tech giants nearby means that even if your startup just implodes, you can probably still get a decent job in the area (going from big company to startup to back again is really common in the bay area, for example).

Disclaimer: I work at Google, my opinion is my own, etc.

[st1ck]

This. If there has to be a regulation, I'd require companies to give more freedom to users, e.g. to choose default search engine, install alternative app stores, allow access to public data without account (e.g. LinkedIn) etc.