Network Law Review - Network Law Review

Keeper Acquisitions: What Big Tech Keeps When It Buys

14 September 2026Selcukhan Unekbas

The "killer acquisition" hypothesis dominates debate on technology mergers, asking whether large firms buy startups to eliminate them. But the more revealing question is what acquirers keep. I report the findings of a new working paper that applies survival analysis to 364 GAFAM acquisitions between 2014 and 2024, tracking how long each target maintained an independent presence and how long its senior team remained inside the acquirer. Three findings stand out. First, "Big Tech" is no monolith: Microsoft rarely shuts...

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30 April 2026

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29 April 2026

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