On January 21, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and Smithfield Foods, Inc., entered into a settlement to resolve DOJ allegations that Smithfield engaged in “gun-jumping” in connection with Smithfield’s 2007 acquisition of Premium Standard for $810 million.[1] DOJ had investigated the merger and concluded that it was not likely to harm competition.[2] Despite that approval, Smithfield agreed to pay a civil fine of $900,000 to resolve DOJ’s gun-jumping allegations.

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