Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On November 13, 2007, the Department of Justice announced that it reached a settlement that will require Vulcan Materials Company and Florida Rock Industries Inc. to divest eight quarries that produce coarse aggregate in Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia and one distribution yard in Virginia in order to proceed with their proposed $4.6 billion merger. The…

On October 8, 2007, the European Commission (the “Commission”) initiated Phase II proceedings into the proposed acquisition of Reuters by Thomson. The in-depth assessment affords the Commission the opportunity to further examine the impact on competition of the proposed acquisition on the affected markets, notably for the supply of financial information. In particular, the Commission…

On October 9, 2007 the Federal Trade Commission entered into a settlement agreement with Kyphon, Inc. (“Kyphon”) that allows Kyphon to acquire the spinal assets of Disc-O-Tech Medical Technologies, Ltd. and Discotech Orthopedic Technologies, Inc. (collectively “Disc-O-Tech”).According to the complaint filed with the settlement agreement, the post-merger U.S. market for minimally invasive vertebral compression fracture…

On October 3, 2007, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it will not continue with administrative litigation challenging Western Refining, Inc.’s acquisition of Giant Industries, Inc. The vote to dismiss the administrative complaint was 3-2.Originally, the FTC had voted to attempt to block the proposed acquisition in April 2007, and filed complaints before both a…

On January 9, 2004, Sony Corp of Japan and Bertelsmann AG of Germany notified the European Commission (the “Commission) of their intention to combine their global recorded music businesses into a joint venture under the name of SonyBMG. They notified under the old EC Merger Regulation.The Commission approved the merger unconditionally on July 20, 2004.…

In a recent judgment dated September 30, 2007, the Federal Supreme Court held that even after parties abandon their merger plans due to a prohibition decision by the German Federal Cartel Office (“BKartA”), German courts hold jurisdiction to rule on the question as to whether the BKartA was right to prohibit the proposed merger. The…

On September 27, FirstGroup plc entered into a settlement agreement with the DOJ for First Group to sell off a large school bus contract and associated assets in Alaska in order to progress with its acquisition of Laidlaw International Inc. Without the settlement agreement, the DOJ believed the transaction raised competition concerns in the provision…

On September 21, 2007, Federal Trade Commission advised the Greater Rochester Independent Practice Association, Inc. (GRIPA), that it had no present intention to challenge the organization’s planned conversion to a non-exclusive physician network joint venture. GRIPA requested a staff advisory opinion regarding its proposal to combine and coordinate the provision of medical services to patients.The…

On September 20, 2007, Mr. Jacobi, the president and owner of Jacobi Industries Inc., pled guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to rig bids on U.S. Department of Defense (“DOD”) contracts for military tiedown equipment and cargo securing systems. Under the plea agreement, Mr. Jacobi agreed to pay a criminal fine of $20,000, and…