Lock Them Up, or Take No Prisoners? Merger Policy and Acquiring AI Talent: Human Rights and Other Inconvenient Facts

This paper contains two main propositions, recognizing the some “acqui-hire” fact patterns may generate analogous effects to M&A.  First, it argues that team hires by Big Tech in the AI talent wars are not presumptively to be classed in broad-brush terms as “law-avoidance” mechanisms as a matter of intent nor anti-competitive “killers-acqui-hires” as a matter of effect.  Rather, it suggests that cases should be assessed on their individual merits in a context where antitrust ge