Index funds and Big Tech are working together to hurt Little Tech

The influence that index funds such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street have had on markets is unmistakable. They are so influential that both President Donald Trump’s Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission filed a statement of interest in Texas’s lawsuit against those same companies for distorting energy markets by “using their management of stock in competing coal companies to induce reductions in output,” which led to higher energy costs for consumers.

But these influences go beyond energy markets. Index fund interactions with the tech industry are also affecting consumers, specifically in how companies such as Apple can use them to attack competitors, as it is attempting to do to health-tech upstart Masimo.

In 2013, Apple reached out to Masimo, a small but pioneering medical technology company known for its breakthroughs in noninvasive patient monitoring, to discuss a partnership. What followed would set off a decadelong saga involving trade secrets, corporate recruitment, and ultimately, a high-stakes battle for control of Masimo itself.

Read more in the Washington Examiner.