Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On June 2, the European Commission approved a

On May 31, the Commission has authorized the staff to file a joint amicus brief with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the case of Weyerhaeuser Co. v. Ross-Simmons Hardwood Lumber Co., No. 05-381 (S. Ct.). The brief, which was filed on May 26, 2006, urges the Court to grant certiorari in this case,…

On May 30, the DOJ approved Avocent Corp.'s $416 million acquisition of Landesk Software Inc. The deal was announced in April. Avocent is a supplier of network equipment technology and Landesk makes software to secure and manage information technology.

On May 26, Intelsat Ltd. announced that it received clearance from the Department of Justice for its $6.4 billion cash-and-debt deal to buy rival PanAmSat Holdings Corp. Under the terms, Intelsat would pay $25 in cash for each share of PanAmSat and assume about $3.2 billion in debt. The Bermuda-based satellite communications company said last…

On May 26, the Senate approved by unanimous consent Robert McDowell's appointment as an FCC commissioner. The vote came after a tussle over a series of holds placed on his nomination in the past couple of months. McDowell's arrival will bring the Commission to a full slate of 5 members for the first time in…

On May 23, the Department of Justice approved Precision Castparts Corp.'s $540 million cash acquisition of Special Metals Corp. Huntington, West Virginia based Special Metals is the world's biggest maker of nickel-based alloys and superalloys for forged products. Precision, based in Portland, Oregon, is one of Special Metals' customers and manufactures components for the aerospace,…

On May 23, Attachmate Corp. received clearance from the Department of Justice for its $495 million cash purchase of San Jose-based NetlQ Corp. The deal was announced in April. Seattle-based Attachmate is a privately held vendor of software used to link mainframes to PCs. The takeover removes ailing NetIQ from the ranks of publicly traded…

On May 23, the South Korean Fair Trade Commission (“KFTC”) rejected an objection lodged by Microsoft in March over a ruling that the company should unbundle its media player and messaging service from Windows software, echoing a similar decision made by the European Commission in 2004 that it unbundled its media player and messaging program…

On May 22, Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp. announced that it is under investigation by the DOJ's Antitrust Division over its former DRAM chip operations' sales activities between 1998 and 2002.

On May 22, it was announced that the government of New Zealand was reviewing the Commerce Act, which encompasses its antitrust laws that cover mergers and acquisitions in order to ensure that New Zealand companies would be able to compete globally. Commerce Minister Lianne Dalziel reportedly said that the government may consider granting increased powers…