DOJ Probes a16z Under a 112-Year-Old Antitrust Law Over Databricks and Fivetran Board Seats

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The Justice Department has spent nearly a year investigating whether Ben Horowitz's Databricks board seat and Martin Casado's Fivetran seat constitute an illegal interlock under Section 8 of the Clayton Act, since both a16z portfolio companies sell overlapping data analytics. Casado also sat on dbt Labs' board until Fivetran acquired it in June. No final decision has been made and the DOJ has historically settled such cases by requiring resignations, but the theory that different partners at the same firm can create a prohibited interlock would reshape how multi-stage funds staff boards.