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Why the FTC Is Going After Big Razor — Instead of Big Tech
What the halting of the Harry’s acquisition says about the future of mergers — and the startups hoping to cash out
For two years, a rising drumbeat in Washington has called for increasingly dramatic action to weaken the power of big companies in pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and especially technology. This week, the Federal Trade Commission acted, but with a surprising target — Big Razor.
In a lawsuit Monday, the FTC sued to stop Edgewell, the company that owns Schick, from buying Harry’s, a mostly direct-to-consumer e-commerce razor company that in just a few years has helped to upend the multibillion-dollar shaving industry. It’s a massive blow to both the seven-year-old startup, co-founded by one of the Warby Parker co-founders, and the consumer product goods company, which owns staid brands including Hawaiian Tropic and Playtex. The marriage would have meant a financial exit and path for growth for the venture-backed startup, and fresh leadership at Edgewell, which was planning to anoint Harry’s’ co-founders as co-presidents of the company’s entire U.S. operations.
The move appears to signal that the federal government is back in the anti-merger game after some four decades of lax antitrust enforcement. In a report…
