WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) – Noah Phillips, a Republican on the US Federal Trade Commission, on Thursday dodged a question about Elon Musk’s plan to buy Twitter (TWTR.N), but said some transactions are economically important because they lead to better management.
Phillips, speaking at an Axios event, was asked if Musk would be allowed to own Twitter and declined to discuss the agency’s investigation into the deal. “I am not speaking on the antitrust issue. And I don’t want to talk about anything that we may or may not look at. I’m not saying a thing or two because I’m not talking about investigations,” he said.
But he went on to talk more generally about how good certain types of transactions have been for the US economy.
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“One of the things that has made America’s economy resilient and competitive for many years is what we call the corporate controls market. While there are a lot of people whistling the whistle on mergers, the fact that we’re allowing companies to go to people who can better manage them, so people will bid and be like, ‘Hey, I can do this job better,’ was over one a net gain in American society for a long time,” he said.
Phillips never specifically mentioned Twitter or Musk, who struck a deal on April 25 to purchase the social media platform in a $44 billion buyout.
The FTC commissioner also expressed concern that deals were not being reviewed quickly enough. “One of the things that we’ve compromised is this corporate control market, and I think that’s a mistake,” he said.
The FTC is led by Democratic Chairwoman Lina Khan and has had one other Democrat and two Republicans for months. Democrats are taking control of the agency with Democrat Alvaro Bedoya’s confirmation on Wednesday.
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Reporting by Diane Bartz Editing by Paul Simao
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