Articles Posted in DOJ Antitrust Highlights

On April 1, 2008, the Montana Board of Realty Regulation repealed its rule disallowing real estate brokers to “solicit business by offering gifts, rebates, or promotional items.” In August 2007, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division began an investigation of the Montana Board of Realty Regulation. In most states, real estate brokers are allowed to…

On March 26, 2008, Peck & Hale, LLC, a Long Island, NY defense firm, pled guilty to a two-count felony charge for rigging bids for U.S. Department of Defense (“DOD”) military restraints equipment contracts. This equipment is used to tie down and secure vehicles, aircraft, munitions, shipping containers, and other specialized military cargo requirements for…

On March 24, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) approved a proposed merger between XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. (“XM”) and Sirius Satellite Radio, Inc. (“Sirius”), the only two satellite radio service providers in the United States. The DOJ stated despite a merger to monopoly that the merged companies would not increase prices to satellite…

On March 6, 2008, Alliance Mechanical, an Arizona commercial refrigeration company, and Kendall Pope, president and co-owner of the company, pleaded guilty for their role in a conspiracy to rig bids on contracts for the installation of commercial refrigeration equipment in Safeway Inc. grocery stores in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Alliance Mechanical and Mr. Pope…

On March 5, 2008, Altivity Packaging LLC (“Altivity”) and Graphic Packaging International Inc. (“Graphic”) entered into a settlement agreement with the DOJ that they will divest two paperboard mills-one in Indiana and the other in Pennsylvania-in order to proceed with their proposed $1.75 billion merger. The Antitrust Division stated that the merger, as originally proposed,…

On March 4, 2008, the DOJ reached a settlement that will require Cookson Group plc and Foseco plc to divest Foseco’s U.S. carbon bonded ceramic (“CBC”) business in order to proceed with Cookson’s proposed $1 billion acquisition of Foseco. Allegedly, the transaction, as originally proposed, would substantially lessen competition in the United States for certain…

On February 25, 2008, UnitedHealth Group Inc. (“United”) and Sierra Health Services Inc. (“Sierra”) entered into a settlement agreement that required United to divest assets relating to United’s Medicare Advantage business in the Las Vegas area in order to proceed with United’s acquisition of Sierra. Allegedly, the transaction, as originally proposed, would have created a…

On February 19, 2008, the Antitrust Division entered into a settlement agreement requiring The Thomson Corporation (“Thomson”) to sell financial data and related assets in three markets for financial data in order to proceed with Thomson’s proposed $17 billion acquisition of Reuters Group PLC (“Reuters”). Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Thomson and Reuters…

On February 13, 2008, the DOJ entered into a settlement agreement with Clear Channel, the largest operator of radio stations in the United States, to divest radio stations in four cities in order for a group of private equity investors led by Bain Capital (“Bain”) and Thomas H. Lee Partners (“THL”) to proceed with their…