Podcast - Noteworthy Value-Based Care Mergers and Acquisitions Transactions
As 2025 progressed, competition law enforcement became increasingly policy-driven, influenced by domestic political agendas and transatlantic tensions with direct consequences for dealmaking, compliance, and regulatory risk....more
On 23 December 2025, SAMR released the third batch of cases from the special campaigns rectifying the abuse of administrative power to eliminate or restrict competition....more
The Competition Bureau (Bureau) has released for consultation draft Merger Enforcement Guidelines (draft MEGs), updating its last comprehensive merger guidelines issued in 2011 (2011 MEGs). The draft MEGs seek to describe the...more
On November 13, 2025, the Competition Bureau (Bureau) published for consultation its draft Merger Enforcement Guidelines (Draft MEGs) setting out its enforcement approach to merger reviews under the Competition Act (Act). The...more
The second quarter of 2025 was marked by major transactions, high-stakes litigation, and shifting regulatory frameworks. In the United States, deals such as Salesforce/Informatica and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)/Juniper...more
Introduction and historical context - In a decision of rare consequence, Spain's National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has moved to propose the prohibition of Curium Pharma Holding Spain's proposed acquisition...more
In an unprecedented antitrust action, the California Attorney General (AG) has intervened in a transaction that did little more than change the ownership of Walgreens Boots Alliance (Walgreens) to a private equity firm (PE)...more
Baker Botts was pleased to sponsor the 13th edition of the Global Antitrust Hot Topics: EU, US & Global Perspectives, one of the premier gatherings in the EU Competition law community. The 25 September program featured...more
Healthcare has consistently ranked among the top enforcement priorities for Chinese antitrust regulators, reflecting its direct implications for consumer welfare and public policy. In recent years, the State Administration...more
AI-sector deal gives CoreWeave control over Core Scientific’s data centers, bolstering its support of compute-intensive workloads. CoreWeave, a cloud infrastructure provider focused on AI workloads, announced its acquisition...more
Since China’s Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) was implemented in 2008, the nation has reviewed over 6,000 concentrations. While most were cleared unconditionally and conditional decisions primarily involved behavioral remedies, an...more
On May 7, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court opinion that denied the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) motion for a preliminary injunction against Microsoft’s acquisition of...more
JANUARY – MARCH 2025: KEY THEMES AND TAKEAWAYS - UNITED STATES - FTC Loses Vertical Challenge to Tempur Sealy/Mattress Firm On July 2, 2024, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed suit in federal court seeking to block...more
On January 31, 2025, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas denied the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) motion for a preliminary injunction to block the $4 billion acquisition of Mattress Firm by...more
On January 31, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas denied the Federal Trade Commission’s request for a preliminary injunction to block Tempur Sealy’s (the world’s largest mattress manufacturer)...more
The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) failure to obtain a preliminary injunction to block Tempur Sealy’s $4 billion proposed acquisition of Mattress Firm is yet another loss in a string of failed vertical challenges by the...more
In an interesting political twist, the difference in approaches to antitrust enforcement between Democrat and Republican Administrations has been narrowing. It used to be that the difference in party control of the Antitrust...more
On October 10, 2024, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), with the concurrence of the U.S. Department of Justice (the “Agencies”), announced the most significant changes to the Premerger Notification Rules since the...more
In a recent episode of the Heart of Healthcare podcast, co-hosts Michael T. Esquivel and Halle Tecco, sat down with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan, who offered her perspective on the intersection of antitrust...more
To date, 2024 has not yet seen the type of mega-merger (Pfizer/Seagen) or level of agency enforcement (Sanofi/Maze or Amgen/Horizon) as 2023. But two notable investigations — one still active — show the Federal Trade...more
After a 5-0 vote, on July 2, 2024, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sought to block mattress manufacturer (the “Manufacturer”) contemplated $4 billion acquisition of a mattress retailer (“Retailer”) by filing both an...more
UNITED STATES - New Merger Guidelines Deployed - The 2023 Merger Guidelines are a non-binding statement that provides clarity on aspects of federal agencies’ deliberations and enforcement practices undertaken in...more
On December 18, 2023, The Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice concluded a nearly two-year process of updating both the horizontal and vertical merger guidelines with the release of the...more
IN THIS FEBRUARY 2024 ISSUE - UNITED STATES - New Merger Guidelines Released - The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and US Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ) issued their updated Merger Guidelines on...more
In prior posts, we discussed the draft, updated merger guidelines that had been issued by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice (sometimes referred to as the “Agencies”) in July of last year. At that...more