Lina Khan Points To Figma Ipo As Vindication Of M&a Scrutiny

A astonishing fig is celebrating Figma’s successful IPO: Lina Khan, erstwhile chair of nan Federal Trade Commission.

In a Friday day post connected X, Khan linked to an article astir Figma’s awesome first time of trading and based on nan IPO is “a awesome reminder that letting startups turn into independently successful businesses, alternatively than beryllium bought up by existing giants, tin make tremendous value.”

Khan was alluding to a $20 cardinal woody for Adobe to get Figma that fell through backmost successful 2023. While Adobe cited nan deficiency of a “clear path” to support from nan European Commission and nan U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, nan acquisition besides faced regulatory scrutiny successful nan United States complete concerns that it could forestall Figma from being an “effective competitor” to Adobe.

Khan was FTC chair astatine nan time, starring nan agency to situation Big Tech connected fronts including startup acquisitions — to nan constituent that companies tried to debar this scrutiny pinch “reverse acqui-hires” successful which they hired cardinal squad members and licensed exertion alternatively than acquiring startups outright. (The believe seems to beryllium continuing contempt Khan’s departure from nan FTC.)

While her fierce stance led to aggravated disapproval from corners of nan tech industry, she defended her approach by saying that only a mini percent of deals received “a 2nd look” and arguing that founders would yet use from “a world successful which you person six aliases 7 aliases 8 imaginable suitors” alternatively than “just 1 aliases two.”

And though Khan — who’d been appointed by President Joe Biden — resigned astatine nan start of nan 2nd Trump administration, her comments Friday overgarment nan Figma IPO arsenic a vindication for her approach, calling nan IPO “a triumph for employees, investors, innovation, and nan public.”

Of course, Khan’s critics are much apt to spot Figma’s occurrence arsenic coming contempt regulatory scrutiny, not because of it. For example, Wedbush Security expert Dan Ives told Business Insider, “Figma is simply a monolithic success, but it’s because of nan company’s innovative maturation and not owed to nan FTC and Kahn.”