Antitrust

Biden trustbusters keep new ideas on life support

15 Nov 2024

The DOJ is suing to stop UnitedHealth’s $3 bln deal for in-home care rival Amedisys, arguing it would hurt patients. As with other recent US litigation, it targets issues beyond price, in this case quality and capacity. It’s a parting shot at codifying novel competition theory.

Arbageddon dangers averted by only so much

12 Nov 2024

Merger arbitrageurs battered by tougher trustbusters and scarce deals cheered the US election results. The pending $35 bln takeover of credit card brand Discover and others may benefit, as more M&A gets teed up. A mercurial Donald Trump, however, is bound to blow up some trades.

Biden trustbusters get free rein to accessorize

25 Oct 2024

A US judge agreed to halt the $8.5 bln sale of Michael Kors owner Capri to Kate Spade parent Tapestry. Shares buoyed by overconfident traders halved. Others should take heed: the ruling adds substantial heft to novel theories pushed by this administration’s deal hawks.

EU champions’ hope will slam into hard M&A reality

16 Oct 2024

Brussels bigwigs, like new antitrust boss Teresa Ribera, want to create US-style corporate giants. Yet possible options, like a 160-bln-euro Orange-Deutsche Telekom deal, make no industrial sense. The risk is that even if politicians get on board, shareholders won’t.

Google antitrust roulette puts $600 bln at stake

9 Oct 2024

US competition cops presented a grab bag of possible remedies, including breaking up the $2 trln tech giant, after it was ruled a monopoly. Its dominance may soften the blow. But with search revenue and more at risk, the worst-case hit could top a quarter of Google’s value.

Neither precedent nor Trump can save Big Tech

8 Oct 2024

Epic Games’ victory in a suit against Google means the search giant must open up its app store. Tech honchos may be hopeful for a change of administration. But even if a new president softens stance, the past four years and lawsuits elsewhere will do permanent damage.

Nvidia has nothing to fear but a lack of fear

4 Sep 2024

A sell-off in the $2.6 trln chipmaker’s shares, the third this year, has little basis in industrial reality. Customers still plan to spend billions on its chips. Fickle markets and antitrust probes are risks, but a bigger one is complacency – as modeled by forebearer Intel.

New EU antitrust tsar has better tools, harder job

27 Aug 2024

The European Union will soon have a new competition commissioner. Margrethe Vestager’s replacement has greater scope to go after Big Tech and Chinese subsidies. But he or she will also have to defend the single market from the assault of EU members’ national industrial policies.

Google solution is distribution, tech and time

19 Aug 2024

How do you fix a $2 trln illegal search monopoly? Counterintuitively, big moves like separating Google’s ad platform might just treat the symptom. Nixing contracts bolstering its lead in users and data gets at the illness. The key is to give new tech room to shift the market.

Google is a monopoly, long live Google

5 Aug 2024

Alphabet’s search giant illegally wields its might over rivals, a US judge has ruled. The decision also carefully stays within classic antitrust boundaries. Given how tricky disentangling the $2 trln company’s technology would be, a market-shaking penalty will be hard to impose.

Microsoft opens windows onto AI antitrust paradox

10 Jul 2024

The software behemoth is ceding its non-voting board seat at OpenAI, the ChatGPT maker essential to its artificial intelligence plans. Building a silicon mind may take $1 trln, however, making deep pockets as powerful as governance rights. A bigger, messier crackdown looms.

Tougher trustbusting will last beyond US election

3 Jul 2024

In just a few years, competition cops Jonathan Kanter and Lina Khan reversed a lax consensus that existed for decades. The November ballot threatens to derail some of their efforts. Much of the agenda has staying power, however, both in the fine print and the bigger principles.

NFL can turn a $5 bln court loss into a touchdown

1 Jul 2024

The American football franchise may have to pay billions after a jury deemed bundling teams’ Sunday games to be anticompetitive. The NFL is TV’s biggest prize, so a single package commands top dollar. But other leagues prove dicing up rights can spark a wider feeding frenzy.

Trustbusters loom larger for Microsoft than Nvidia

6 Jun 2024

Tech is full of natural monopolies, and artificial intelligence may be no different. Regulators prefer to act quickly to stop abusive actions snuffing out competition. The $3 trln chipmaker’s dominance will be hard to dislodge. The software giant’s AI deals appear more fragile.

Capital One scales banking’s Mount Improbable

30 May 2024

The US lender’s $35 bln bid for Discover will make it king of the hill in credit-card debt, but to realise his ambitions, boss Richard Fairbank has a lot of people to win over. That includes not just regulators and merchants but his own investors – and maybe then the world.

Live Nation breakup will leave Swifties unsated

24 May 2024

The $22 bln venue owner and ticketer is being sued by US watchdogs who link Live Nation’s grip on music concerts with sky-high ticket prices. Busting the company in two doesn’t guarantee lower fees. A separate Ticketmaster will probably do fine on its own.

Trustbusters target poor man’s John D. Rockefeller

2 May 2024

Today’s energy producers wield far less clout than the industrialist’s Standard Oil, whose breakup shaped US competition law. By comparison, the FTC’s collusion case against Pioneer’s ex-CEO linked to the $65 bln Exxon deal is mostly symbolic. Robber barons lurk elsewhere now.

Silicon Valley models value of noncompete ban

24 Apr 2024

A new FTC rule forbids US companies from stopping employees joining a rival, or starting one. Freeing up opportunities for a fifth of the workforce should boost pay. California’s tech hub also showcases other benefits of labor mobility. Intel, for example, exists because of it.

Kate Spade deal veto is lucky dip for trustbusters

23 Apr 2024

US competition cops want to stop Tapestry, owner of the handbag brand, from buying rival Capri. The $8.5 bln merger is a tempting target: well-known products, few political issues, and none of Big Tech’s mighty resources. That offers a chance to road-test novel legal theories.

UnitedHealth shows market power is double-edged

16 Apr 2024

The insurer’s reach in the US healthcare system drew an antitrust probe – and a ransomware attack that could cost $1.6 bln. It’s grist for trustbusters: dominance may let firms take their eye off the ball on cybersecurity, and make the systems that depend on them more fragile.