Showing archive for: “Mergers & Merger Enforcement”
Airgas and shareholder value
Bebchuk, Cohen and Wang have posted Staggered Boards and the Wealth of Shareholders: Evidence from a Natural Experiment. Here’s the abstract: While staggered boards are known to be negatively correlated with firm valuation, such association might be due to staggered boards either bringing about lower firm value or merely being the product of the tendency ... Airgas and shareholder value
The Sound of One Hand Clapping: The 2010 Merger Guidelines and the Challenge of Judicial Adoption
Along with co-author Judd Stone, I’ve posted to SSRN our contribution to the Review of Industrial Organization‘s symposium on the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines — The Sound of One Hand Clapping: The 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the Challenge of Judicial Adoption. The paper focuses on the Guidelines’ efficiencies analysis. We argue that while the ... The Sound of One Hand Clapping: The 2010 Merger Guidelines and the Challenge of Judicial Adoption
FCC Approves Comcast-NBC Merger With Conditions
While the FCC has announced its approval of the Comcast-NBC deal, The problem of overlapping agency review of mergers arises once again. We’ve discussed previously the costs of FCC merger view, and in particular, the issues of delay and imposition of conditions unrelated to the merger. The FCC review of the Comcast-NBC deal appears to ... FCC Approves Comcast-NBC Merger With Conditions
DOJ Gears Up To Challenge Proposed Google-ITA Merger
The WSJ reports that the DOJ is getting itself ready to challenge the Google-ITA merger (see earlier TOTM posts here and here): Justice Department staff lawyers have begun preparing legal documents for use in a possible court challenge to the $700 million deal for ITA Software Inc., but no decision to proceed has been made, ... DOJ Gears Up To Challenge Proposed Google-ITA Merger
Why (Ever) Define Markets?
The titular question is posed by Louis Kaplow (Harvard) in a recent piece in the Harvard Law Review that I suspect will attract a fair amount of attention. I may have more to say about this later, but for now, here is the abstract: Competition law is dominated by the market definition / market share ... Why (Ever) Define Markets?
Abercrombie goes to Ohio
Steve Davidoff has the story, and it’s an interesting exercise in corporate contracting complicated by jurisdictional choice. Abercrombie’s proposed reincorporation is essentially a takeover defense. Unlike Delaware, Abercrombie’s current state of incorporation, Ohio Has a business combination statute that’s triggered by a 10% acquisition rather than 15% as in Delaware. Has a control share acquisition ... Abercrombie goes to Ohio
Against Consumer Choice as an Antitrust Standard (Some Preliminary Thoughts)
The “consumer choice” approach to antitrust is increasingly discussed in a variety of settings, and endorsed by regulators and in scholarship, especially but not exclusively in the Section 5 context. The fundamental idea is that the “conventional” efficiency approach embedded in the total and/or consumer welfare standards is too cramped and does not measure the ... Against Consumer Choice as an Antitrust Standard (Some Preliminary Thoughts)
Lynn Stout on “criminogenic” hedge funds and insider trading
Lynn Stout, writing in the Harvard Business Review’s blog, claims that hedge funds are uniquely “criminogenic” environments. (Not surprisingly, Frank Pasquale seems reflexively to approve): My research, shows that people’s circumstances affect whether they are likely to act prosocially. And some hedge funds provided the circumstances for encouraging an antisocial behavior like not obeying the ... Lynn Stout on “criminogenic” hedge funds and insider trading
Why can’t we have a better press corps?: WaPo Google antitrust edition
Steven Pearlstein at the Washington Post asks if it’s “Time to loosen Google’s grip.” The article is an analytical mess. Pearlstein is often a decent business reporter–I’m not sure what went wrong here, but this is a pretty shoddy piece of antitrust journalism. For the most part, the article is a series of tired claims ... Why can’t we have a better press corps?: WaPo Google antitrust edition
Casino Games and Antitrust — UPDATED
UPDATE: Link to opinion below. A federal district court judge recently decided an interesting antitrust/ IP case involving “wheel game” slot machines. IGT sued Bally’s in 2004 for allegedly infringing a number of patents on a “wheel game” slot machine. Bally’s initially prevailed, winning a pair of summary judgment rulings on the validity of IGT’s ... Casino Games and Antitrust — UPDATED
Correcting Herb Kohl (and Kayak and Bing Travel . . .) on Google/ITA
Today comes news that Senator Kohl has sent a letter to the DOJ urging “careful review” of the proposed Google/ITA merger. Underlying his concerns (or rather the “concerns raised by a number of industry participants and consumer advocates that I believe warrant careful review”) is this: Many of ITA’s customers believe that access to ITA’s ... Correcting Herb Kohl (and Kayak and Bing Travel . . .) on Google/ITA
Horizontal Mergers: What to Expect from Regulators and Judges Under New Federal Guidelines
Washington Legal Foundation is hosting a free webinar Friday, December 3rd at 10 am (EST) the New HMGs featuring John Thorne (Verizon) and Janet McDavid (Hogan Lovells). Details on how to register and view online are available here.
