IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iepoli/v59y2022ics0167624522000129.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Big Tech platform acquisitions of start-ups and venture capital funding for innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Prado, Tiago S.
  • Bauer, Johannes M.

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of “Big Tech” platform acquisitions on venture capital (VC) funding for start-ups. We analyze 32,367 venture capital deals between 2010 and 2020, and 392 tech start-up acquisitions by Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. Results obtained with fixed effects panel and differences-in-differences estimators reveal a positive, statistically significant, average effect of Big Tech start-up acquisitions on worldwide, venture capital activity. Positive effects were also found for the United States and Europe. However, the findings suggest that the effects are transient and fade away after several quarters. Because venture capitalists fund start-ups to enable entrepreneurial innovation, this approach also informs our understanding of the repercussions of these acquisitions on the start-up innovation ecosystem. The large number of observations over an extended period unlocks insights into historical patterns that are relevant for the design of digital platform policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Prado, Tiago S. & Bauer, Johannes M., 2022. "Big Tech platform acquisitions of start-ups and venture capital funding for innovation," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:59:y:2022:i:c:s0167624522000129
    DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2022.100973
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167624522000129
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.infoecopol.2022.100973?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Josh Lerner & Ramana Nanda, 2020. "Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 237-261, Summer.
    2. Gautier, Axel & Lamesch, Joe, 2021. "Mergers in the digital economy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    3. Gilbert, Richard J., 2021. "Separation: A Cure for Abuse of Platform Dominance?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Keisuke Hirano & Guido W. Imbens & Geert Ridder, 2003. "Efficient Estimation of Average Treatment Effects Using the Estimated Propensity Score," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(4), pages 1161-1189, July.
    5. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    6. Chiara Fumagalli & Massimo Motta & Emanuele Tarantino, 2020. "Shelving or developing? The acquisition of potential competitors under financial constraints," Economics Working Papers 1735, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    7. Rin, Marco Da & Hellmann, Thomas & Puri, Manju, 2013. "A Survey of Venture Capital Research," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 573-648, Elsevier.
    8. Andrew Goodman-Bacon, 2018. "Difference-in-Differences with Variation in Treatment Timing," NBER Working Papers 25018, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Jens Foerderer & Thomas Kude & Sunil Mithas & Armin Heinzl, 2018. "Does Platform Owner’s Entry Crowd Out Innovation? Evidence from Google Photos," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 444-460, June.
    10. Igor Letina & Armin Schmutzler & Regina Seibel, 2020. "Killer acquisitions and beyond: policy effects on innovation strategies," ECON - Working Papers 358, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Jul 2023.
    11. Samuel Kortum & Josh Lerner, 2000. "Assessing the Contribution of Venture Capital to Innovation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(4), pages 674-692, Winter.
    12. Cabral, Luís, 2021. "Merger policy in digital industries," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    13. Lerner, Josh, 1995. "Venture Capitalists and the Oversight of Private Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 50(1), pages 301-318, March.
    14. Gompers, Paul A. & Gornall, Will & Kaplan, Steven N. & Strebulaev, Ilya A., 2020. "How do venture capitalists make decisions?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 169-190.
    15. Baker, Malcolm & Gompers, Paul A, 2003. "The Determinants of Board Structure at the Initial Public Offering," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 46(2), pages 569-598, October.
    16. Katz, Michael L., 2021. "Big Tech mergers: Innovation, competition for the market, and the acquisition of emerging competitors," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    17. Varian, Hal R., 2021. "Seven deadly sins of tech?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    18. Colleen Cunningham & Florian Ederer & Song Ma, 2021. "Killer Acquisitions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(3), pages 649-702.
    19. Marco Da Rin & María Fabiana Penas, 2007. "The Effect of Venture Capital on Innovation Strategies," NBER Working Papers 13636, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Faria, Ana Paula & Barbosa, Natália, 2014. "Does venture capital really foster innovation?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 129-131.
    21. Samuel Kortum & Josh Lerner, 1998. "Does Venture Capital Spur Innovation?," NBER Working Papers 6846, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Paul Gompers & Josh Lerner, 2001. "The Venture Capital Revolution," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 145-168, Spring.
    23. Lisa Feeney & George H. Haines & Allan L. Riding, 1999. "Private investors' investment criteria: Insights from qualitative data," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(2), pages 121-145, April.
    24. Giulio Federico & Fiona Scott Morton & Carl Shapiro, 2020. "Antitrust and Innovation: Welcoming and Protecting Disruption," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(1), pages 125-190.
    25. Gompers, Paul A., 1996. "Grandstanding in the venture capital industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 133-156, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Jiancheng & Li, Xiaoye, 2023. "From “Super App” to “Super VC”: The value-added effect of China's digital platforms," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    2. Jean-Michel Benkert, Igor Letina, Shuo Liu, 2023. "Startup Acquisitions: Acquihires and Talent Hoarding," Diskussionsschriften dp2309, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    3. Martin Peitz, 2023. "Governance and Regulation of Platforms," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_480, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    4. Jean-Michel Benkert & Igor Letina & Shuo Liu, 2023. "Startup Acquisitions: Acquihires and Talent Hoarding," Papers 2308.10046, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    5. Prado, Tiago S., 2022. "Safeguarding Competition in Digital Markets: A Comparative Analysis of Emerging Policy and Regulatory Regimes," 31st European Regional ITS Conference, Gothenburg 2022: Reining in Digital Platforms? Challenging monopolies, promoting competition and developing regulatory regimes 265666, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Prado, Tiago S., 2021. "Kill Zones? Effects of Big Tech Start-up Acquisitions on Innovation," 23rd ITS Biennial Conference, Online Conference / Gothenburg 2021. Digital societies and industrial transformations: Policies, markets, and technologies in a post-Covid world 238049, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    2. Bauer, Johannes M. & Prado, Tiago S., 2020. "Lessons from Innovation Economics for Digital Platform Policy," ITS Conference, Online Event 2020 224846, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    3. Andrew Metrick & Ayako Yasuda, 2011. "Venture Capital and Other Private Equity: a Survey," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 17(4), pages 619-654, September.
    4. Lohwasser, Todor S., 2020. "Meta-analyzing the relative performance of venture capital-backed firms," Discussion Papers of the Institute for Organisational Economics 4/2020, University of Münster, Institute for Organisational Economics.
    5. Ting-Kai Chou & Jia-Chi Cheng & Chin-Chen Chien, 2013. "How useful is venture capital prestige? Evidence from IPO survivability," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 843-863, May.
    6. Jia, Ning & Wang, Dan, 2017. "Skin in the game: General partner capital commitment, investment behavior and venture capital fund performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 110-130.
    7. Esmée Dijk & José Luis Moraga-González & Evgenia Motchenkova, 2023. "Start-up Acquisitions and the Entrant’s and Incumbent’s Innovation Portfolios," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 23-047/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    8. Rudra P. Pradhan & Rana P. Maradana & Danish B. Zaki & Saurav Dash & Manju Jayakumar & Kunal Gaurav, 2017. "Venture Capital and Innovation: Evidence from European Economic Area Countries," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 14(06), pages 1-30, December.
    9. Rin, Marco Da & Hellmann, Thomas & Puri, Manju, 2013. "A Survey of Venture Capital Research," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 573-648, Elsevier.
    10. Grilli, Luca & Murtinu, Samuele, 2014. "Government, venture capital and the growth of European high-tech entrepreneurial firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1523-1543.
    11. Gilbert, Richard J. & Katz, Michael L., 2022. "Dynamic merger policy and pre-merger product choice by an entrant," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    12. Feng, Xunan & Chan, Kam C. & Lo, Yung Ling, 2020. "Are venture capitalist-backed IPOs more innovative? Evidence from an emerging market," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    13. Yin He & Bin Li & Yunhua Tian & Lijun Wang, 2016. "Does Foreign Venture Capital Provide More Value-added Services to Initial Public Offering Companies in China?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 24(2), pages 90-106, March.
    14. Bhanot, Karan & Kadapakkam, Palani-Rajan, 2022. "Pay for performance, partnership success, and the internal organization of venture capital firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    15. Valérie Revest & Alessandro Sapio, 2012. "Financing technology-based small firms in Europe: what do we know?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 179-205, July.
    16. Klaus Gugler & Florian Szücs & Ulrich Wohak, 2023. "Start-up Acquisitions, Venture Capital and Innovation: A Comparative Study of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp340, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    17. Marco Da Rin & María Fabiana Penas, 2017. "Venture capital and innovation strategies," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 26(5), pages 781-800.
    18. Ewens, Michael & Gorbenko, Alexander & Korteweg, Arthur, 2022. "Venture capital contracts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 131-158.
    19. Spyros Arvanitis & Tobias Stucki, 2014. "The impact of venture capital on the persistence of innovation activities of start-ups," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 849-870, April.
    20. Andrea Bellucci & Serena Fatica & Aliki Georgakaki & Gianluca Gucciardi & Simon Letout & Francesco Pasimeni, 2023. "Venture Capital Financing and Green Patenting," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(7), pages 947-983, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Digital platform; Big Tech; Venture capital; Start-up; Innovation funding; Kill zones;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
    • L44 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Antitrust Policy and Public Enterprise, Nonprofit Institutions, and Professional Organizations

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:59:y:2022:i:c:s0167624522000129. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505549 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.