The dollar amounts used to determine whether a merger or acquisition is subject to the mandatory pre-merger notification requirements has been raised regularly since the law was first implemented in the 1970s. For the first time, the Federal Trade Commission recently announced that the thresholds will be reduced. The decision is based on the view that the […]
Category Archives: Federal Trade Commission
US Supreme Court Denies Cert in FTC v. Rambus
December 8, 2009 – 5:16 pm
Update December 2009: The EC has agreed to close its investigation of Rambus in exchange for Rambus’s agreement to issue royalty free licenses for its SDR and DDR chips and to charge 1.5% for patents necessary for later chip standards, a percentage point reduction from the company’s current royalties for DDR chips. Ramus is not […]
FTC Green Lights Panasonic/Sanyo Merger with Agreed Divestitures
December 1, 2009 – 3:30 pm
The FTC has agreed to permit the Panasonic/Sanyo merger to move forward pursuant to an agreement to sell Sanyo’s nickel hydride battery business, a type of rechargeable battery, to Fujitsu subsidiary FDK. Sanyo had previously agreed to sell other portions of its battery making business to the company. The divesitures resolved the FTC’s concern that the […]
FTC Finds Multi-state Listing Service Has Violated Section 5
December 1, 2009 – 1:43 pm
Reversing an ALJ’s dismissal of the administrative complaint, the FTC has held that a Michigan real estate multi-listing service violated Section 5 by discriminating against low-cost listings in two ways. First, the service did not transmit low cost listings to publicly accessible websites such as Realtor.com. Second, the MLS’s own search mechanism defaulted to full price […]
CVS/Caremark Merger Raises Vertical Concerns
November 30, 2009 – 4:29 pm
Attacks on vertical mergers have been quite rare in recent years, but the FTC, at the urging of several members of Congress, appears to be taking a keen interest in the merger between retail pharmacy chain, CVS, and Caremark, a leading pharmacy benefit manager. The primary concern appears to be that the merged firm will improperly […]
FTC Approves Merck/Schering-Plough Merger with Divestitures
November 5, 2009 – 3:35 pm
The FTC has given a green light to the Merck& Co. Schering-Plough merger on the condition that Merck divest its stake in Merial Ltd an animal health joint venture with Sanofi-Aventis, and Schering divests its assets associated with nausea drugs for humans. Both companies are reported to be in the process of compiling with the […]
FTC Probes Google/Apple Interlocking Directors
October 9, 2009 – 11:48 am
Update October 2009: Arthur Levison, an Apple director since 2000, has resigned his position on the Google board. Update July 2009: Eric Schmidt resigned his seat on the Apple board citing increased competition between Apple and Google. The FTC applauded the decision but vowed to continue the investigation. The FTC has launched a probe into […]
FTC/DOJ to Revise Merger Guidelines
October 6, 2009 – 1:20 pm
For the first time since 1992, the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, and the Federal Trade Commission plan to revise the merger guidelines that explain the federal government’s enforcement policy with respect to mergers between horizontal competitors. Originally drafted in 1968, the guidelines underwent major revisions in the 1980s and again in the early […]
FTC Resolves Pricing Issues with Alta Bates
August 31, 2009 – 9:46 am
In In the Matter of Alta Bates Medical Group Inc., the FTC resolved its price-fixing concerns that the company had 1) made, received, rejected and countered price offers to and from insurers without going back to its individual doctors to find out what price each would take for their services; 2) tried to limit the products Keiser Permanente Insurance […]
FTC Challenges Merger Between Heart Valve Device Makers
August 10, 2009 – 5:24 pm
The FTC has authorized a lawsuit to challenge Thoratec Corp.’s proposed $282 million takeover of rival medical device maker HeartWare International Inc.. The Commission claims that the merger would allow Thoratec to maintain its monopoly on the U.S. market of the left ventricular device (LVAD) used to keep patients suffering from end-stage heart failure alive while […]