Authors: Steven Cernak and Luis Blanquez As we explained in a prior post, the new draft merger Guidelines issued recently by the FTC and DOJ cite to several older court opinions that may be unfamiliar to antitrust practitioners who have been focused for decades exclusively on earlier versions of the…
Authors: Steve Cernak and Luis Blanquez This week a federal judge in California denied a preliminary injunction to block Microsoft’s $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard Inc. Both parties may now move ahead and close the deal––subject to further clearance in the UK and Canada––before the July 18 contractual deadline.…
Authors: Steven Cernak and Luis Blanquez During the last week of June 2023, the Federal Trade Commission proposed making the most drastic changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino form since the form was created in 1978. According to FTC Chair Lina M. Khan’s statement, joined by Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro…
Authors: Molly Donovan & Luke Hasskamp You may recall Liv, age 8—the new kid. Last we heard, Liv was getting pushed around by Paul, Greg and Adam (“PGA” for short) because she dared to build a mini-golf course in an attempt to challenge PGA’s longstanding position as the best and…
Authors: Steven Cernak and Aaron Gott Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Federal Trade Commission and allowed Axon Enterprise to raise certain constitutional objections to FTC processes in federal court before going through the FTC’s internal administrative proceedings. That decision teed up an “existential” threat to the…
Author: Molly Donovan Gordon was recognized as dominant in the 5th grade class. He had the greatest share of friends and ran the fastest. He was the smartest and won the most academic awards at the end of each school year. He was always chosen as the lead in every…
Author: Steven Cernak The twists and turns of the various antitrust challenges to the proposed Illumina/Grail merger have provided antitrust practitioners numerous lessons the last two years. This week, the FTC commissioners unanimously voted to overturn their administrative law judge’s initial decision and order Illumina to divest the controlling stake…
Authors: Steve Cernak, Dylan Carson, Kristen Harris Back in person again, the 71st edition of the American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section’s annual Spring Meeting did not disappoint and Bona Law was there for the formal and informal conversations that will help shape antitrust enforcement in the U.S. and abroad.…
Authors: Jon Cieslak & Molly Donovan Two individuals and four of their corporate entities pleaded guilty to an antitrust conspiracy to fix the prices of DVDs and Blu-Rays sold on Amazon’s platform during the 2016-2019 time period. According to the plea agreements, the defendants “engaged in discussions, transmitted across state…
Author: Steven Cernak In the antitrust world in 2022, stories about Big Tech, government enforcement, and merger challenges dominated the headlines. But in putting together the 2023 edition of Antitrust in Distribution and Franchising (available for purchase soon!), I found a number of less-famous opinions that US distributors and their…