Articles Posted in DOJ Antitrust Highlights

On April 18, the DOJ reached a settlement with Chicago-based Amsted Industries Incorporated in order to remedy harm to competition arising from its December 2005 acquisition of FM Industries (“FMI”). Before the acquisition could be approved Amstead had to divest certain assets. FMI formerly was a wholly owned subsidiary of Progress Rail Services Holding Corporation.…

On April 17, Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, announced that Deborah A. Garza will serve as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Regulatory Matters. Ms. Garza will oversee transportation, energy, agriculture, telecommunications and other regulatory matters for the Division. Most recently, Ms. Garza chaired the Antitrust Modernization…

On April 17, the DOJ and the FTC issued a joint report, “Antitrust Enforcement and Intellectual Property Rights: Promoting Innovation and Competition,” to inform consumers, businesses, and intellectual property rights holders about the agencies’ competition views with respect to a wide range of activities involving intellectual property.The report discusses issues including: refusals to license patents,…

On April 4, the DOJ announced that it reached a settlement that will require Mexico-based Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. to divest 39 ready mix concrete, concrete block, and aggregate facilities in Arizona and Florida in the event Cemex succeeds in its hostile takeover of Australia-based Rinker Group. The DOJ said that without the divestitures the…

On March 13, the DOJ announced that a federal grand jury in Denver indicted B&H Maintenance & Construction Inc. (“B&H”) a Eunice, New Mexico based construction company and two of its executives, Jon Paul Smith, vice president and regional manager; and Landon R. Martin, manager of marketing and business development, for participating in a bid-rigging…

On February 21, Robert Taylor, the former president of a Clearbrook, Virginia marine products company agreed to plead guilty for his participation in two separate conspiracies to rig bids and allocate customers with respect to marine products purchased by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other public and private entities. Mr. Taylor was…

On February 20, the DOJ announced Mittal Steel Company N.V. must divest its Sparrows Point facility, located near Baltimore, Maryland to remedy the competitive harm arising from Mittal’s $33 billion acquisition of Arcelor S.A. On Aug. 1, 2006, the Antitrust Division entered into a settlement agreement with Mittal and Arcerlor that provided for various options…

The FCC finally approved AT&T Inc.’s (“AT&T) merger with BellSouth Corp. (“BellSouth”) late on December 29, with the telephone companies agreeing to several conditions, including a controversial network neutrality provision aimed at protecting Web players such as Microsoft and Google. AT&T was eager to close the $80 billion-plus deal for several months. FCC approval was…

On December 21, the DOJ announced that in 2006 the Antitrust Division marked its second highest level of criminal fines obtained in Division history. The Division also experienced increases in merger filings and entered into more merger settlements than the previous two years combined. Further, the Division supported initiatives to improve the analysis of civil…

On December 15, the Antitrust Division announced that it is amending its 2001 Merger Review Process Initiative in order to further streamline the merger investigation process to improve the efficiency of the Division’s investigations while reducing the cost, time and burdens faced by parties to transactions that are reviewed by the Division.The amendments to the…