Startup exits in focus under Chalmers’ merger laws overhaul
Corporate Australia is getting older and less competitive. Labor wants to make it more dynamic by emboldening startups to compete with big businesses, rather than be acquired by them.
Jim Chalmers is trying to reverse a two-decade trend of declining competition in Australian business. To do this, he wants the startup sector to aspire to compete with big businesses, not necessarily be bought out by them.
“Growth in total market concentration … has nearly doubled, from 1.7 per cent in 2010 to almost 3 per cent in 2020,” Chalmers will say on Wednesday morning at the ACCC's Bannerman Lecture while handing down the government's much-awaited plans for merger reforms.
“And the rate of entry of new companies is falling, as the average age of businesses rises.”
Big corporate dealmakers are unlikely to be pleased with the Treasurer. After all, he wants businesses to provide more evidence than ever before to get their deals over the line.
