The FTC notes that these investigations don't have a specific law-enforcement goal in mind; instead, they're being used to help the FTC better understand how these companies generally handle acquisitions. Specifically, the agency wants to know how these companies routinely report their acquisitions to federal antitrust agencies and if the companies are making purchases of smaller companies or competitive companies that don't rate the reporting under the HSR Act guidelines. Besides looking at whether these companies are making smaller purchases that have anti-competitive implications, the FTC also wants to look at how smaller companies perform once being purchased by one of the tech giants.

While the agency says there isn't a specific law enforcement action being tied to these investigations, it's not hard to imagine the information it gathers being used to take further action if it deems necessary. Obviously, we won't know more until these companies report the requested information to the FTC, a process which could take some time.

We've reached out to all five companies involved in this investigation and will update this post if we receive any responses from them.