Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On December 29, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) required a divestiture to resolve antitrust concerns with King Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s (“King”) $1.6 billion acquisition of Alpharma, Inc. (“Alpharma”). To remedy the situation, the FTC is requiring King to divest Alpharma’s brand Kadian, an oral long-acting opioid (“LAO”) analgesic drug, to Actavis, one of the world’s…

On December 22, 2008, Theresa J. Baker, a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, pled guilty for her role in two conspiracies to commit bribery involving U.S. Department of Defense (“DOD”) contracts at Camp Victory, Iraq.As a part of the same investigation, on June 3, 2008, Raman International Inc. (“Raman”), a defense contractor, pled guilty…

On December 19, 2008, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.’s settled charges that its proposed $8.9 billion acquisition of rival generic drug maker Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. would be anticompetitive. The consent order required Teva and Barr to sell assets in 29 relevant markets, including generic drugs commonly used to treat acid reflux disease, various types of cancer,…

On December 18, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsemi Corporation (“Microsemi”) alleging that Microsemi’s acquisition of Semicoa Inc.’s (“Semicoa”) assets has reduced or eliminated competition for the development, manufacture, sale of certain semiconductor devices used by the U.S. military and space programs, resulting in the increase in the price…

On December 18, 2008, Zul Tejpar, a former employee at Bennett Environmental Industries (“BEI”), a Canadian soil treatment company, pled guilty for defrauding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) at the EPA-designated Superfund site, Federal Creosote in Manville, NJ and agreed to pay a criminal fine of $1 million and help in the ongoing investigation.The…

On December 15, 2008, Yong Zhu, the president of Chino, an import-export company that provides Chinese supplies to U.S. companies, pled guilty for his role in a conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.Mr. Zhu allegedly paid an employee of a manufacturing company that did business with Chino as sum of $10,000. In return Mr.…

On December 15, 2008, ESL Partners (“ESL”) of Greenwich, Conn., and ZAM Holdings (“ZAM”) of New York City, two investment funds with holdings in numerous companies, will pay $525,000 and $275,000, respectively, in civil penalties for violating antitrust pre-merger notification requirements under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act of 1976 (“HSR Act”). According to the complaint, after its…

On December 11, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) required The PNC Financial Services Group (“PNC”) to sell 61 of National City Corporation’s (“National City”) branches totaling approximately $4.1 billion in deposits for PNC’s acquisition of National City to proceed.Fifty of the branches ($3.35 billion in deposits) are located in Allegheny County (PA), six ($249…

On December 11, 2008, Cynthia K. Ayer, Bambarg County (South Carolina) School District’s former technology coordinator, pled guilty for her role in a conspiracy to defraud the Federal Communication Commission’s E-Rate Program and agreed to serve two years in jail and pay a criminal fine of $468,496.The Telecommunication Act of 1996 authorized the E-Rate Program…

On December 10, 2008, Misao Hioki, general manager of International Engineered Products, pled guilty to his role in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares of marine hose in the United States. He also pled guilty for his role in another conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) by…