Private equity investments
FTC's merger remedies study
A CFIUS Roundup: Polaris Financial
For companies in the energy and chemical sectors, the potential for antitrust scrutiny is an ever-present concern. The next round of enforcement inquiries is never further away than the next jump in commodity prices or the...more
The U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division ("DOJ") recently resolved a criminal case with Teva Pharmaceuticals and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals via deferred prosecution agreements ("DPAs"), which include a novel remedy for...more
The start of 2023 has been a busy one, with global antitrust agencies advancing investigations and challenging a number of technology acquisitions. Future antitrust enforcement could also be shaped by new digital market...more
The Biden Administration's aggressive antitrust enforcers have trained their sights on private equity companies. They have signaled through enforcement activities, formal policy statements and informal interviews and speeches...more
In 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order directing antitrust enforcers to make sure that health care would be an area of emphasis for antitrust enforcement, and in 2022 they did. Federal regulators brought several...more
Takeaways - With increasingly aggressive antitrust and foreign investment reviews, directors need to be fully informed about the risks of deals from the beginning of negotiations. Boards should insist that management and its...more
Earlier this year, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who leads the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division, announced that the Antitrust Division would eschew settlements in merger challenges in...more
On June 13, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “the Commission”) announced a consent agreement resolving concerns with a private equity acquisition, incorporating novel prior notice and approval requirements...more
On 25 October, the FTC released a Statement on the Use of Prior Approval Provisions in Merger Orders (Prior Approval Statement) making clear that the agency intends to include in all divestiture orders a requirement that the...more
Here are last week’s curated AG and federal regulatory news stories highlighting key areas in which state and federal regulators’ decisions are having an impact across the US: J&J Settles Opioid-Related New York Suit for...more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) reached a settlement with 7-Eleven, Inc. and Marathon Petroleum Corporation (“Marathon”) to resolve allegations that 7-Eleven’s acquisition of Marathon’s retail fuel chain subsidiary,...more
On February 18, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the divestiture order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in a private merger challenge brought by...more
The US Department of Justice Antitrust Division issued a new Merger Remedies Manual on September 3 clarifying the analytical framework the Trump administration’s DOJ is using to evaluate remedies that may address competitive...more
The U.S. Department of Justice's ("DOJ") new remedies guide reinforces its strong preferences for structural divestitures and upfront buyers to resolve merger investigations. Last week, the DOJ released a new "Merger...more
The United States Department of Justice released its revised Merger Remedies Manual on September 3, 2020, providing “Antitrust Division attorneys and economists with a framework for fashioning and implementing appropriate...more
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently extracted a $3.5 million civil penalty from two companies involved in a gas station merger. The FTC asserts the companies violated their settlement agreement with the government,...more
Schick, the shaving product company, recently announced it was abandoning its proposed $1.4 billion acquisition of rival startup Harry’s Razors. The announcement followed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) threat to...more
New guidance from the Federal Trade Commission's ("FTC") staff describes the FTC's views on "post-order" divestitures and highlights the difficulties in persuading the FTC to abandon its preference for upfront buyers in...more
On March 11, 2019, the Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC’s”) Bureau of Competition and the Assistant Director of the Bureau’s Compliance Division coauthored a blog post to announce the revision of “standard...more
The Federal Trade Commission, by a 3-2 party-line vote, has settled a vertical merger challenge in exchange for the merging companies' behavioral commitments. The decision and Commissioner statements signal tension for FTC...more
On October 22, 2018, the FTC announced it had reached a settlement with industrial gas suppliers Praxair, Inc. and Linde AG (the “Parties”) arising out of their proposed merger. According to the FTC’s Complaint, issued by 4-1...more
WHAT HAPPENED - • Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (ACT) is a Canadian corporation and is engaged in the retail sale of gasoline and diesel fuel in the United States. Circle K Stores, Inc. (Circle K) is a wholly owned...more
On July 6, 2016, Danone S.A. (Danone) agreed to acquire The WhiteWave Foods Company (WhiteWave) for $12.5 billion. WhiteWave is the leading manufacturer of fluid organic milk in the United States and one of the top...more
On 3 February 2017, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its Merger Remedies Study, which analyzed the success of merger remedies imposed by the FTC from 2006 to 2012. Nearly two decades after it issued a similar...more
The Federal Trade Commission staff have completed a new study evaluating its process for designing and implementing merger remedies and the success of the remedies it has imposed in the past. Its report—"The FTC's Merger...more