Lina Khan points to Figma IPO as vindication of M&...

A stunning determine is celebrating Figma’s profitable IPO: Lina Khan, former chair of the Federal Commerce Fee.

In a Friday afternoon post on X, Khan linked to an article about Figma’s impressive first day of trading and argued the IPO is “an excellent reminder that letting startups develop into independently profitable companies, moderately than be purchased up by present giants, can generate monumental worth.”

Khan was alluding to a $20 billion deal for Adobe to amass Figma that fell through again in 2023. Whereas Adobe cited the shortage of a “clear path” to approval from the European Fee and the U.Ok. Competitors and Markets Authority, the acquisition additionally confronted regulatory scrutiny in the US over issues that it might stop Figma from being an “efficient competitor” to Adobe.

Khan was FTC chair on the time, main the company to problem Large Tech on fronts together with startup acquisitions — to the purpose that firms tried to keep away from this scrutiny with “reverse acqui-hires” through which they employed key group members and licensed know-how moderately than buying startups outright. (The follow seems to be continuing regardless of Khan’s departure from the FTC.)

Whereas her aggressive stance led to intense criticism from corners of the tech business, she defended her approach by saying that solely a tiny share of offers obtained “a re-assessment” and arguing that founders would finally profit from “a world through which you may have six or seven or eight potential suitors” moderately than “only one or two.”

And though Khan — who’d been appointed by President Joe Biden — resigned at the start of the second Trump administration, her feedback Friday paint the Figma IPO as a vindication for her method, calling the IPO “a win for workers, buyers, innovation, and the general public.”

After all, Khan’s critics usually tend to see Figma’s success as coming regardless of regulatory scrutiny, not due to it. For instance, Wedbush Safety analyst Dan Ives told Business Insider, “Figma is an enormous success, nevertheless it’s due to the corporate’s progressive progress and never as a result of FTC and Kahn.”