As Rebalance Now, we are part of the Digital Merger Watch (DMW) project. Digital Merger Watch is a global initiative dedicated to scrutinising and challenging Big Tech’s efforts to reinforce its dominance through mergers and acquisitions.
On the 5th February, the DMW has updated its Big Tech M&A tracker. The new data reveals that:
- Acquisitions by Big Tech firms like Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Apple and Amazon and Meta increased by 30% in 2025
- Big Tech is positioning itself as a key actor in the future of AI, with 15 of those acquisitions being AI-related.
- Last year saw a rise in Big Tech’s talent acquisition and licensing deals, which could be a tactic to bypass EU scrutiny.
The consequences of this shift go beyond market competition to broader issues such as data privacy, governance and geopolitics. This illustrates again that the EU needs an effective and unified legal framework to control Big Tech mergers and acquisitions.
Image: alphaspirit.it; Lizenz: Shutterstock
