• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 3, 2019

The White House is stepping up its scrutiny of big digital media platforms, announcing late Friday a Department of Justice antitrust investigation of Google and that the Federal Trade Commission would begin monitoring Amazon’s practices.

“We have never seen a regulatory environment more hostile towards big tech and see the agency coordination as a pretty powerful statement,” Michael Levine, senior research analyst covering the media and internet sectors for Pivotal Research Group, wrote in a note sent to investors this morning.

“We have no doubt that this will weigh on the multiples for both stocks as well as likely for [Facebook],” he continued, adding, “It suggests the government is out for blood. Prospective fines aside what does that mean?”

Friday’s regulatory double-whammy was followed this morning by a tweet from the President calling on cable subscribers to drop cable and broadband provider, and CNN owner, AT&T, because of the news network’s critical coverage of his administration (see tweet).

Pivotal’s Levine also noted that the increased regulatory scrutiny of Amazon and Google comes as the FTC delayed an antitrust settlement with Facebook.

“If deemed a monopolist [Facebook] is probably the cleanest break-up to affect,” he wrote, adding, “Divide up core Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram properties into separate companies.”

Levine suggested such a break-up would likely reduce Facebook’s leverage with Madison Avenue, because it derives much of its market power by exploiting data across its platforms.