Articles Posted in Merger Highlights

On November 18, 2008, UK’s Office of Fair Trading (“OFT”) cleared InBev N.V/S.A.’s (“InBev”) $52 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (“Anheuser”). The new company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, will own InBev’s Stella Artois and Beck’s lager brands and Anheuser’s Budweiser lager brand. The transaction cleared the OFT without any conditions, even though the newly merged company…

On November 14, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) required Inbev N.V./S.A. (“Inbev”) to divest its subsidiary Labatt USA (“Labatt”) in order for Inbev’s $52 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc (“Anheuser-Busch”) to proceed. Along with the divestiture, Inbev must sell its license to brew, market, promote, and sell the Labatt brand of beer for…

On November 14, the DOJ allowed InBev N.V./S.A. (“InBev”) to acquire Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (“Anheuser-Busch”) on the condition that InBev divest Labatt USA. The DOJ was concerned that without the divestiture of Labatt USA, the merger was likely to lessen competition substantially in the market for beer in the metropolitan areas of Buffalo, Rochester, and…

On October 30, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) required Verizon Communications Corp. (“Verizon”) to divest assets in 100 locations in 22 States for its acquisition of Alltel Corp. (“Alltel”) to proceed. The divestitures cover the States of Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina,…

On October 29, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) decided to end its investigation into the proposed merger between Delta Air Lines, Inc. (“Delta”) and Northwest Airlines Corporation (“Northwest”). The DOJ believes that the merger will result in substantial and credible efficiencies for the two companies, which would translate into improved service by the two…

On October 23, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) challenged CCS Corporation’s (“CCS”) proposed $85 billion acquisition of Newpark Environmental Services (“Newpark”), a division of Newpark Resources, Inc. The FTC alleged that the proposed transaction would have combined two of only three providers of waste disposal services to the offshore oil and natural gas exploration…

On October 20, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to prevent JBS’s proposed acquisition of National Beef Packing Company LLC (“National”). JBS is the world’s largest beef packer and the third largest in the United States with annual sales in the United States exceeding $6 billion. National is the fourth…

On October 6, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) entered into a settlement agreement requiring The Manitowoc Company (“Manitowoc”) to divest its entire U.S. ice machine business to allow its $2.7 billion acquisition of Enodis Plc (“Enodis”) to proceed. Manitowoc and Enodis are two of the only three manufacturers of commercial cube ice machines in…

On August 28, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) approved Raycom Media, Inc.’s (“Raycom”) acquisition of Richmond NBC affiliate, WWBT-TV from Lincoln Financial Media Company (“Lincoln”) after entering into a settlement agreement requiring Raycom to divest its Richmond CBS affiliate WTVR-TV to resolve antitrust concerns. This acquisition would have resulted in Raycom owning two of…

On August 13, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) ordered Sun Pharmaceutical Industry Ltd (“Sun”) to sell all rights and assets of three distinct generic formulations of the anticonvulsant drug carbamazepine to Torrent Pharmaceutical Ltd, a generic drug company based in India, for its acquisition of Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (“Taro”) to proceed. Sun, based…