November 19, 2018
Antitrust: M&A Investigations Move Faster in 3rd Quarter
We’ve previously blogged about the DOJ’s stated desire to speed up the antitrust merger review process. According to this Dechert memo, the 3Q 2018 results suggest that progress is being made – and that merger investigations are moving faster in the EU as well. Here’s an excerpt with are some of the stats:
– The number of significant merger investigations in both the U.S. and EU is down compared to calendar year 2017.
– In the U.S., the two significant investigations concluding during Q3 2018 averaged only 6.9 months — the quickest pace for any quarter in over four years.
– All three significant EU investigations involved Phase II cases and averaged 13.5 months, faster than the 15.1-month average in CY 2017.
– Two U.S. merger litigations concluded during Q3 2018 and averaged only 105 days from complaint to decision — nearly half as long as litigations brought in 2017 — largely due to the unique posture of one of these cases.
The head of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division recently announced that the DOJ was in the process of implementing a plan to modernize the merger review process – and that speeding up the process was a priority. The memo notes that the FTC Chair Joseph Simons has recently expressed a desire on his agency’s part to speed up the process as well. So, hopefully the most recent stats on timing represent the start of a trend.
– John Jenkins