Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On September 3, the companies announced that they received clearance from the Department of Justice to complete their proposed merger without conditions. The DOJ issued a second reqeust around June 22. The entire investigation took approximately four months. The second request period, however, was relatively short as it lasted only about two months. Despite the…

On August 25, 2009, Epson Imaging Devices Corporation (“Epson”), a Japanese electronics manufacturer, pled guilty for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices in the sale of Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display (“TFT-LDC”) panels and agreed to pay a fine of $26 million. TFT-LCD panels are used in computer monitors, notebooks, televisions, mobile phones,…

On August 20, 2009, the DOJ announced that it reached a proposed settlement with Microsemi Corporation requiring the company to divest all of the assets that it acquired from Semicoa Inc. on July 14, 2008. The DOJ investigated the consummated acquisition and filed a civil antitrust suit to force Microsemi to divest the Semicoa assets…

On August 20, 2009, Oracle announced that the DOJ closed its investigation of Oracle’s acquisition of Sun. The DOJ issued a second request to further investigate the transaction in late June. The DOJ ended its investigation approximatley two months after issuing the second request without requiring any remedy. Apparently, the licensing of Sun’s Java software…

On August 19, 2009, Wen Jun (“Tony”) Cheng, a former assistant vice president of sales and marketing at a large Taiwanese color display tube (CDT) manufacturing company, was indicted at U.S. District Court in San Francisco for his role in a global conspiracy to fix prices of CDTs. CDTs are a type of cathode ray…

On August 5, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) will hold joint public workshops to explore competition issues affecting the agriculture industry and the appropriate role for antitrust enforcement in agriculture. These are the first joint DOJ/USDA workshops…

On August 3, the Federal Trade Commission said it will continue to investigate the relationship between the boards of Apple, Inc. and Google, Inc. even after Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, resigned from Apple’s board earlier in the day. Richard Feinstein, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, commended both companies for “recognizing that sharing directors…

On July 30, 2009, the DOJ announced that it reached a settlement that will require Sapa Holding AB and Indalex Holdings Finance Inc. to divest a North Carolina aluminum sheathing facility in order to proceed with Sapa’s proposed $150 million acquisition of Indalex. According to the complaint, the transaction would substantially lessen competition for the…

On July 29, Thoratec reported that it had been informed by the FTC that the FTC would challenge its $282 million acquisition of Heartware. The parties decided to abandon the merger two days later. The FTC’s complaint alleged that the deal would be illegal because it would substantially reduce competition in the U.S. market for…

On July 28, 2009, Nyree Patterson, the niece of former U.S. Army Major John Cockerham, pled guilty for her role in conspiracy to cover up her uncle’s involvement in accepting $9 million in bribes as a contracting officer at a Kuwaiti air base. Ms. Pettaway admitted to going to Kuwait in late 2006 and receiving…