Articles Posted in DOJ Antitrust Highlights

On July 11, Smith & Nephew's Endoscopy division acquired San Antonio-based OsteoBiologics Inc. Smith & Nephew officials say they will pay $72.3 million in cash for OBI, which is a private company. OBI sells bioabsorbable bone graft substitutes in Europe to repair cartilage defects in the knee, and offers the substances in the United States…

On July 10, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division announced that the third in a series of planned joint public hearings designed to examine the antitrust implications of single-firm conduct under the antitrust laws will take place on July 18, 2006, in Washington, DC. As previously announced, these public hearings…

On June 27, the Commission authorized the filing of comments, prepared jointly with the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, with the New York State Assembly Committee on the Judiciary regarding proposed legislation to expand the scope of activities constituting the unauthorized practice of law. In the comments, the FTC and DOJ address Assembly Bill…

On June 27, the Department of Justice announced that it will require The McClatchy Company and Knight Ridder Inc. to divest the St. Paul Pioneer Press in order to proceed with their proposed multi-billion dollar newspaper merger. The DOJ said that the transaction, as originally proposed, would have eliminated head-to-head competition between McClatchy and Knight…

On June 26, orthopedic device manufacturers revealed the issuance of federal subpoenas tied to potential violation of antitrust law from the Department of Justice. Zimmer Holdings Inc., Biomet Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Stryker Corp. all said they had received subpoenas from the Antitrust Division demanding documents related to the manufacture and sale of the…

On June 23, the DOJ filed a petition asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to hold the American Bar Association (“ABA”) in civil contempt for violating multiple provisions of a 1996 antitrust consent decree. The consent decree prohibited the ABA from misusing the law school accreditation process. The DOJ also filed…

On June 22, the DOJ announced that the $16 billion merger between Exelon Corp. and Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. can proceed as long as they divest six electricity generating plants, which in total provide more than 5,600 megawatts of generating capacity. The DOJ is making the companies shed two generating plants in Pennsylvania and…

The American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”), a group of small telecommunications companies, and Sprint Nextel Corp. (“Sprint”) have joined to oppose AT&T Inc.'s (“AT&T”) bid to acquire BellSouth Corp. (“BellSouth”). In its June 5th filings with the FCC, the ACLU said it wants the commission to hold up approval of the merger until the phone…

On June 20, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division announced that they are implementing an electronic filing system that allows merging parties to submit via the Internet premerger notification filings required by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Electronic filings may be submitted quickly and easily, eliminating the time and expense entailed in…

On June 20, the staff of the Bureau of Competition advised Alpena (Michigan) Public Schools that its proposed plan to have pharmaceuticals transferred to it for use by its employees, by the Alpena Regional Medical Center, with actual distribution of the pharmaceuticals being made by certain Alpena-area pharmacies, falls within the Non-Profit Institutions Act “NPIA”.…