One Medical drops on report FTC hiring outside economists on Amazon deal (update)

Update 11:25am: Adds new reporting about potential lawsuit against Amazon over antitrust practices.

One Medical OONEM fell 2.7% amid reports that that the Federal Trade Commission has hired outside economists as is reviews Amazon's AMZN planned $3.5 billion takeover and that the FTC may sue the tech giant over alleged anticompetitive practices. Amazon dropped 4%.

While the FTC hasn't made any final decision, the staff is preparing to file a lawsuit if it decides to challenge the transaction, according to a Dealreporter item.

The Dealreporter piece came out almost the same time as WSJ report that the FTC is preparing a potential antitrust lawsuit against Amazon AMZN due to anticompetitive business practices.

Bloomberg separately reported that an FTC antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, which could be filed as soon as this spring, could also include the company's plans to buy One Medical OONEM and iRobot IRBT. iRobot shares fell 2.1%.

Amazon AMZN declined to comment to Seeking Alpha on the piece about the hiring of outside economists by the FTC.

The hiring of the outside lawyer comes after the FTC suffered a blow on Wednesday when a federal judge ruled on Meta Platforms META can buy virtual reality company Within Unlimited. The report also follows after Amazon AMZN disclosed in early September that it received a request for additional information from the FTC about its One Medical OONEM deal.

The FTC sent out subpoenas to current and former customers of One Medical as it probes the $3.9 billion transaction, according to a Dealreporter item last month. which explained that subpoenas are not atypical in some reviews.

Amazon AMZN agreed to acquire One Medical OONEM, an operator of a membership-based primary care platform for $18/share in July.

Amazon AMZN is also acquiring iRobot IRBT for $1.65 billion and received a second request to do a more in-depth review from the FTC in September. In October Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as well as five other members of Congress urged the FTC to block the transaction.