New FTC Leadership Expected to Loosen Regulation and Spark M&A Activity Under Trump Administration

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate a replacement for current FTC Chairperson Lina Khan, who has run a tight ship against Big Tech, Big Pharma, and overall merger activity.

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JD Vance adviser Gail Slater and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Andrew Ferguson have emerged as potential replacements for FTC Chairperson Lina Khan, sources told the New York Post.

Khan’s term began in June 2021 under the Biden administration and expired in September 2024. She may remain in office indefinitely until President-elect Donald Trump nominates a replacement with Congressional approval or until she chooses to leave on her own accord.

“She will be fired soon,” Elon Musk, co-head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, wrote on X.

While there is wide consensus that Trump will nominate a replacement, Khan’s polarizing tenure has generated strong feelings on both sides of the aisle.

“I look at Lina Khan as one of the few people in the Biden administration that I think is doing a pretty good job,” said Vice President-Elect Vance at Bloomberg’s RemedyFest technology forum in February.

Khan has filled her tenure with efforts against company consolidation and anticompetitive behavior.

“We’re really showing these companies, but also showing the country that enforcers are not going to back down because of these companies flexing some muscle or kind of trying to intimidate us,” Khan told CNBC. “I think those are the types of lessons that we’re trying to learn looking back over the last decade.”

Khan also said the FTC wouldn’t back down in the face of intimidation from better-resourced opponents.

Under her leadership, the FTC blocked deals, from the $25 billion Kroger-Albertsons merger to Tapestry’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri that failed in October. In addition, the agency has sued companies including Amazon, Google, NVIDIA, Facebook, and Live Nation Entertainment for monopolistic practices.

As a result, the last few years have seen limited M&A success across industries. The FTC blocked a record number of merger transactions in 2022, according to a report from global law firm Dechert LLP. The report also found that 60% of all merger investigations in 2022 resulted in “the deal either being blocked or abandoned,” a significant increase from the previous year’s 37%.

Once Trump takes office in January 2025, the regulatory attitude toward M&A “will likely be more relaxed under the incoming administration,” according to David Kostin, chief U.S. equity strategist at Goldman Sachs. 

Kostin added in a client note that M&A activity should rebound by 20% in 2025, compared to the 15% decline in 2024.

Wedbush Securities, a privately held financial services firm, expressed similar expectations for a “dramatically reduced regulatory framework.” 

While “there will still be questions and scrutiny of Microsoft and Big Tech,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives indicated that “the Street focus continues to be around a more tech-friendly FTC chair named by Trump.”