Articles Posted in DOJ Antitrust Highlights

Andre P. Barlow’s most recent published article is now available on the Legal Times website. To read it, please visit: http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1161075916475&hub=Commentary

On October 19, the DOJ announced that Regions Financial Corporation and AmSouth Bancorporation agreed to sell 52 AmSouth branch offices with approximately $2.7 billion in deposits in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee in order to resolve competitive concerns raised by the companies’ proposed merger. The DOJ said that without the divestitures the merger would adversely affect…

A federal grand jury in San Francisco returned an indictment on October 18th against two executives from Samsung Electronics Ltd. (“Samsung”) and one executive from Hynix Semiconductor America Inc. (“Hynix America”) for their participation in a global conspiracy to fix DRAM prices. DRAM is the most commonly used semiconductor memory product, providing high-speed storage and…

On September 28, the DOJ announced that it filed a notice with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss its antitrust complaint challenging the potential acquisition of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG) by Exelon Corp. Exelon formally abandoned its effort to acquire PSEG, and therefore the lawsuit and proposed consent…

On September 18, the DOJ announced that it filed a notice with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to dismiss its antitrust complaint regarding the potential acquisition of Falconbridge Limited by Inco Limited because Inco has formally abandoned its effort to acquire Falconbridge. The DOJ said that the lawsuit and proposed consent…

On September 7, the DOJ announced that ALLTEL Corporation agreed to divest assets in rural areas of Minnesota in order to proceed with its $1.075 billion acquisition of Midwest Wireless Holdings LLC. The DOJ said that the deal as originally proposed would have resulted in higher prices, lower quality, and diminished investment in network improvements…

On August 10, the DOJ announced that it would not oppose a proposal by the American Trucking Associations Inc. (ATA) to develop and publicize model agreements for motor carriers and freight transportation brokers. The DOJ said the model agreements are not likely to be anticompetitive. The DOJ's position was stated in a business review letter…

On August 8, the DOJ announced it would not oppose a proposal which would allow 10 textile maintenance companies to bid jointly to provide textile rental and laundry services to national healthcare outpatient centers. Based on representations made in the proposal by Linen Systems for Healthcare LLC, the DOJ concluded that the proposed joint venture…

On August 1, the DOJ Antitrust Division announced that it would require Mittal Steel Company N.V. to divest one of three North American tin mills it will own after its $33 billion acquisition of Arcelor S.A. in order to proceed with the deal. After a thorough investigation, the DOJ concluded that the original deal would…

Also on July 14, several parties asked the FCC to deny license transfers related to the proposed sale of Verizon Communications, Inc.'s (“Verizon”) Puerto Rico telecom assets – including the incumbent local exchange carrier and its second largest wireless service operator – to America Movil S.A. de C.V. (“American Movil”). Competitors are concerned that the…