FTC Chair Lina Khan welcomes companies weighing antitrust in deals, addresses critics

By Jody Godoy and Lananh Nguyen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan on Friday welcomed that companies are weighing antitrust considerations early in their dealmaking process.

"When you see greater scrutiny of mergers, you can see greater deterrence of illegal mergers," Khan told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Khan was responding to a question about the hostility she sometimes evokes from Wall Street investors.

"As a law enforcer, I want people to be thinking about whether their deal is going to violate the law or not going to violate the law, so that's progress," she said. "If you're looking at it from the prism of deal fees and that sort of thing, I can see why it might be upsetting," she said, drawing laughter from the audience.

Khan has drawn criticism from some in the business community who say the FTC and Department of Justice's close scrutiny of pending deals has dried up the merger pipeline. In July, a pair of wealthy Democratic donors called on Vice President Kamala Harris to replace Khan if Harris is elected president.

There's a need for more empirical study of how antitrust enforcement affects venture capital, Khan said.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy and Lananh Nguyen in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)