What the final days of the Biden administration portend for private equity enforcement in Trump 2.0 -
During the final days of the Biden administration, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the...more
2/14/2025
/ Anticompetitive Behavior ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Violations ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Popular ,
Private Equity
In the US, the election of Donald Trump for a second term has significant implications for antitrust enforcement at the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). New...more
The Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act thresholds, which determine whether mergers and acquisitions must be reported to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), will increase by nearly 6% in February...more
1/15/2025
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Competition ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Mergers ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test
On October 10, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a unanimous 5-0 vote to finalize changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) premerger notification program, including changes to the HSR form and associated...more
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint and proposed consent decree alleging that Legends Hospitality Parent Holdings prematurely acquired beneficial ownership – often referred to as “gun jumping” – in connection...more
2023’s much-discussed downturn in mergers & acquisitions – with global M&A volume and value down 6% and 17%, respectively, from 2022 – was largely driven by the slowdown in the tech sector, with global tech M&A volumes down...more
As a capstone on the Biden administration’s aggressive 2023 antitrust enforcement, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) jointly issued revised Merger Guidelines before the holidays, replacing the...more
In the wake of major bank failures in the US, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has signaled that it plans to step up antitrust enforcement of bank mergers. In June 2023, the DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust...more
On June 27, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a proposal for a radical overhaul to the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) premerger notification program that, if adopted, would dramatically increase costs, burden and...more
The Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act thresholds, which govern when acquisitions must be reported to the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, will increase slightly more than 10% in February 2023. The minimum...more
Tech M&A in 2022 was a tale of two halves. The year started off with a bang, with mega-deals such as Microsoft’s pending $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and...more
On December 29, 2022, President Joe Biden signed a funding bill into law that includes provisions that significantly change the filing fees for mergers & acquisitions notifiable under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act.
For...more
On October 31, the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) delivered on its promise to pursue criminal enforcement of Section 2 of the Sherman Act when it secured a guilty plea from a highway paving...more
The Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division secured its first win in a criminal enforcement of labor market antitrust violations on October 27, 2022, when nurse staffing company VDA OC pleaded guilty to violating...more
In April 2022, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, head of the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, fired a warning shot to companies: “For too long, our Section 8 enforcement has essentially been limited to...more
The Department of Justice’s first criminal wage-fixing and no-poach cases ended in acquittals, but we don’t expect this will lessen the DOJ’s scrutiny on competition in labor markets....more
On March 2, 2022, Richard Powers, the deputy assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, said that the division is prepared – for the first time in decades – to bring criminal charges...more
On March 2, 2022, Richard Powers, the deputy assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, said that the division is prepared – for the first time in decades – to bring criminal charges...more
To strengthen enforcement, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are undertaking a review of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines, last revised by the Obama administration in 2010, and the...more
Basic ‘size-of-transaction’ threshold now $101 million -
The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act thresholds, which govern when mergers and acquisitions must be reported to the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, will...more
General trends in tech M&A Hello, (virtual) world once again! Despite everyone’s efforts in 2021, including the rollout of vaccines and varying rounds of lockdowns and work-from-home mandates, a true “return to normal” for...more
Baseline HSR threshold now $92 million The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act requires that parties to certain transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, acquisitions of voting securities, and assets and minority investments, file...more
2/2/2021
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Division ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Filing Fees ,
Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ,
Interlocking Directorate ,
Mergers ,
Section 8 ,
Size of Persons Test ,
Size of Transaction Test ,
The Clayton Act ,
Threshold Requirements
Covid-19 has made 2020 into a year like no other with ‘stay at home’ orders and working from home the new normal. Nonetheless, the tech and pharma industries continued to attract immense antitrust scrutiny, with daily reports...more
The US Department of Justice Antitrust Division issued a new Merger Remedies Manual on September 3 clarifying the analytical framework the Trump administration’s DOJ is using to evaluate remedies that may address competitive...more
Reaction to recent trial losses; focus of enforcement will remain on mergers between competitors -
On June 30, the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission published new Vertical Merger Guidelines...more