Baazarvoice Agrees to Remedy with the DOJ Over PowerReviews Acquisition

On April 24, 2014, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it has reached an agreement with Baazarvoice which will remedy its illegal acquisition of PowerReviews. Under the proposed remedy, Baazarvoice will sell all the assets it obtained from its acquisition of PowerReviews to a divestiture buyer, and to compensate it for PowerReview’s deteriorated market position as a result of the acquisition. Specifically, Baazarvoice will be:

• Required to provide syndication services to the divestiture buyer for 4 years, so as to allow the divestiture buyer time to develop its own customer base and syndication services;
• Required to waive trade secrecy restrictions for its employees, giving the divestiture buyer access to Baazarvoice’s post-acquisition D&D efforts;
• Required to waive breach-of-contract claims against its customers;
• Required to stop transferring any customers who are using PowerReviews platform to the Baazarvoice platform; this does not include customers who have already transferred or are already in the process of transferring to Baazarvoice;
• Prevented from signing any agreements or reach any understanding to provide Baazarvoice services with customers who are currently users of the PowerReviews platform;
• Required to create an incentives program for customers of the PowerReviews platform, to encourage them to stay with PowerReviews, with the express purpose of retaining PowerReviews’ customer base for the divestiture buyer;
• Required to appoint a trustee to oversee the divestiture process and Baazarvoice’s compliance with the terms of this agreement.

For more information on the Baazarvoice divestiture, please see:

DOJ Successfully Challenges Baazarvoice Consummated Deal in Court

Mark Ye 202-589-1834 mye@dbmlawgroup.com