FTC, Justice Department release new merger guidelines with tech in mind

The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department on Wednesday released new merger guidelines that could make it tougher for Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+1.90%
and Alphabet Inc.’s
GOOGL,
-1.40%

GOOG,
-1.05%
Google to land big deals. The 51-page document vaguely referred to Amazon’s acquisition of Ring in 2018 as a deal that would require more scrutiny from antitrust agencies. The Biden administration has adopted a more stringent stance on mergers, though it lost two court decisions last week over Microsoft Corp.’s
MSFT,
-1.23%
planned $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc.
ATVI,
-0.58%,
which is now scheduled to close Oct. 18.