DOJ files antitrust lawsuit challenging Visa’s $5.3B acquisition of Plaid
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
If the suit hadn't already been filed it might not have happened under Biden, but I'm hopeful the next administration will still follow through with the case.
1 - the DOJ is targeting a product/feature that Plaid hasn't even released: payment processing. That appears to be the reason other fintechs like Stripe/PayPal opposed the deal. Very odd to see this lawsuit filed on the potential for a future product vs. an existing product Plaid offers already. Not a lawyer but wonder what the precedence for this is.
2 - DOJ is targeting Visa as a monopoly in the online debit transaction space. They don't see them as a Visa-Mastercard duopoly. Interesting to compare the DOJ's decision to call Visa a monopoly & block the acquisition vs. a full on monopoly lawsuit for Google.
3 - Wonder what implications this will have on exits for other fintech firms, and startups generally. Definitely makes going public more attractive if the government is signaling that they're not opposed to putting up significant blocks to prevent acquisitions. Delaying an acquisition like this really will spook employees with stock options & VCs