Antitrust

Capital Calls: Microsoft’s Activision deal

31 Mar 2022

Concise views on global finance: The software giant’s $69 bln acquisition of the “Call of Duty” publisher comes with a ton of baggage. That could be why Activision shares are trading at a wide discount to the deal price.

Alphabet fiddles as app-store antitrust fire burns

24 Mar 2022

The $1.8 trln Google parent will let Spotify use its own payment service, skirting a 15% fee. The move piles pressure on rival Apple to do the same. But it’s just a pilot project and probably still includes a hefty charge. U.S. and EU regulators may force the duo to go further.

EU’s faster, harder stick will whack U.S. big tech

22 Mar 2022

Existing antitrust law is too slow to prevent digital monopolies and too weak to create competition. New European rules, with a focus on prevention, will remedy that. The market is big enough and potential penalties so damaging that Apple and others need to take notice.

M&A honchos try U.S. trustbusters in absentia

18 Mar 2022

A big risk to deals is regulatory pushback, and that starts with FTC chief Lina Khan. Top advisers at a New Orleans confab are attacking what they call “bias.” There are broader headwinds, too. But in reality mergers are mostly experiencing rational checks and balances.

Amazon one-ups No. 1 antitrust critic Lina Khan

4 Mar 2022

Time may be running out for the FTC to review the $1.5 trn e-commerce giant’s $8.5 bln deal for MGM. The agency’s chair rose to prominence urging lawmakers to rethink monopoly laws using Amazon as exhibit A. She may struggle to show that her bite is as big as her bark.

UnitedHealth deal block is Big Tech’s pre-op

24 Feb 2022

U.S. merger cops want to stop the healthcare goliath’s $8 bln union with Change Healthcare. Regulators’ worries are less about cornering a market than the buyer’s access to sensitive information. That sets a precedent for antitrust surgery on data-hoarders in Silicon Valley.

Lockheed deal flop is just antitrust amuse-bouche

14 Feb 2022

The defense giant dropped its deal with Aerojet after a challenge by the FTC. It’s less a statement by a newly aggressive regulator, and more a sign traditional competition gauges still hold. Looming tech deals are where FTC firebrand Lina Khan will test her more ambitious goals.

Busted bank cartel case leaves pieces to pick up

11 Feb 2022

Australian prosecutors dropped criminal charges against Citi and Deutsche Bank over a 2015 share sale for lender ANZ. The lawsuit smacked of overreach and was dragging on too long. It also bared unsavoury investment-banking practices. There are lessons to learn for all involved.

The Exchange: Margrethe Vestager

8 Feb 2022

Europe’s antitrust tsar is responsible for keeping U.S. digital behemoths in check and making sure that the bloc doesn’t slip too far behind on technology. She joined Liam Proud to talk about a string of recent court losses and the future of competition policy.

Facebook $250 bln slump punctures antitrust case

7 Feb 2022

That’s how much Mark Zuckerberg’s firm Meta Platforms lost in value after growth stalled. Competition from TikTok specifically is getting tough, but U.S. antitrust regulators who are fighting Facebook have said the Chinese-owned app isn’t a rival. The market begs to differ.

Capital Calls: Antitrust game of chicken

31 Jan 2022

Concise views on global finance: President Joe Biden’s administration is hypersensitive to mergers that reduce competition. Sectors that have also experienced inflation may be top of the hit list – like poultry production.

Microsoft’s scale and M&A invite scrutiny

25 Jan 2022

The $2.2 trln software giant's quarterly sales jumped 20% last quarter. Boss Satya Nadella has outperformed many Big Tech peers of late. After last week's deal to buy Activision for $69 bln, Microsoft's uncanny ability to avoid regulators' crosshairs may be running out.

Defense deal crackdown is a bipartisan affair

25 Jan 2022

After killing Nvidia’s $40 bln Arm deal, U.S. regulatory agency FTC’s head Lina Khan won Republican support to block Lockheed Martin’s deal to buy Aerojet. Defense companies have historically gotten a free antitrust pass. Blocking a merger in that sector leaves little hope for others.

Biden’s antitrust cops turn dealmaking into improv

19 Jan 2022

U.S. watchdogs, swamped by 2021’s $5.8 trln of deals, want to rewrite the merger rule book. Plans to swap a defined framework for an amorphous “holistic” view of possible harms could make deals rarer and more expensive, even if courts that truly decide their fate aren’t on board.

Not all merger boutiques will be equal in 2022

30 Dec 2021

The crackdown on big deals will put a crimp on fees for shops that advise large companies, like PJT or Goldman. The most successful ones will be those that focus on transactions worth less than $1 billion, like Moelis, or big private equity. Houlihan Lokey tops that list.

China is the ghost at the U.S. antitrust feast

29 Dec 2021

A move to slow consolidation could be a gift for Chinese competitors – or so Lockheed Martin says about its purchase of Aerojet Rocketdyne. Expect those arguments to spill out of the defense sector as CEOs facing adversarial watchdogs play the superpower-competition card.

Biden and business are midterm election pair trade

20 Dec 2021

The U.S. president handed corporate chiefs a good year – his moves to help the economy helped them too. If his power wanes after 2022’s Congressional elections, Biden will struggle to wield the stick meant to follow the carrot. A weaker White House means a stronger hand for CEOs.

UK’s Facebook slap-down raises bar for US watchdog

1 Dec 2021

Britain’s antitrust body told the social media giant now named Meta to sell GIF maker Giphy. Its ruling hinges on a view of how the online ad market will evolve, not what it’s like now. CEO Mark Zuckerberg can appeal but the order still sets a punchy precedent for Big Tech deals.

Capital Calls: American healthcare exceptionalism

27 Sep 2021

Concise views on global finance: American male life expectancy at birth dropped over 2 years in 2020, the worst among 29 nations. That raises the stakes in a healthcare crisis among working-age people that even the mightiest U.S. employers have so far failed to solve.

Apple can skip past Epic court slap

10 Sep 2021

A judge ruled the iPhone maker needs to ease its App Store rules and make it more open. But habits are hard to change. And with $194 bln in cash, Apple can still hire the best developers and marketers, not to mention lawyers. It will take a bigger punch to crack its dominance.