Big tech companies are eliminating competition by buying out their smaller rivals faster than ever, the Financial Times reported, citing data from Refinitiv which showed that tech companies spent no less than USD 264 bn buying rivals worth less than USD 1 bn, over a record 9.2k transactions, since the beginning of the year.

This isn’t sitting well with regulators: Officials from the White House, regulators and Congress members have accused tech companies from Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon of stifling competition. The Fed is already retroactively investigating Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp, and have said they may pry into other deals that have the potential to reduce healthy market competition. Tech companies have been under a lot of heat recently, with policymakers last year starting to respond to the growing so-called “techlash” against the influence of tech companies.

What needs to change? Regulators say they must reexamine regulatory loopholes that allow some transactions to “fly under the radar,” including a stipulation that deals below USD 92 mn do not need to be reported to regulatory authorities. Over the past decade, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google and Microsoft made 819 such acquisitions, according to a Federal Trade Commision study.

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Is the global housing market broken beyond repair? Property prices have been rising, straining the purchasing power of aspiring homebuyers, and potential renters too. Bloomberg reports, in a visual feature that explores how aspiring homeowners are feeling these effects around the world. From the US to Argentina, Australia, Canada, Singapore and Ireland, the issue of housing inequality is creating a new generational divide between those who could afford to buy property, and younger generations who fear they will never be able to afford a home.

(Surprise, surprise) Big oil companies might miss out on the UN’s biggest climate event of the year, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The reason: The prerequisites were too tough. What prerequisites you may ask? Committing to a science-based plan to reduce carbon emissions. Some, including BP, reportedly wanted to be involved, but will maintain a low profile.

YOUR MANDATORY COVID STORY- Pfizer and BioNTech say their vaccine is safe for use in children as young as five, after a late stage study involving 2.2k participants showed a strong immune response in children inoculated with a 10 mcg dose, one third of that administered to adults. The companies said they had not yet determined an efficacy rate for the vaccines in children. They will present their findings to US regulators, and could conduct a study in infants aged six months to five years in 4Q2021.