Tag: Merger

Service Corporation International (SCI), the nation’s largest provider of funeral and cemetery services, settled Commission charges that its proposed acquisition of Keystone North America Inc., the fifth-largest funeral and cemetery services provider in North America, raises antitrust concerns in several local markets for funeral services and cemetery services. The order requires SCI to sell 22 funeral homes and four cemeteries in 19 local markets to ensure competition is preserved following its acquisition of Keystone.

The Commission challenged Danaher’s proposed acquisition of MDS Analytical Technologies, requiring that MDS divest its assets related to its laser microdissection business. The proposed settlement is designed to preserve competition in the North American market for laser microdissection devices – a key tool for scientific research.

The Commission challenged Service Corporation International's (SCI) proposed acquisition of local rival Palm Mortuary, Inc.  At the time of the acquisition, SCI, the nation’s largest cemetery operator, was the third-largest provider of cemetery services in Las Vegas, Nevada, and after the acquisition of Palm, would have controlled 76 percent of hte market for funeral services, which includes burial plots, opening and closing of graves, memorials, burial vaults, mausoleum spaces, and cemetery maintenance. The Commission's order required SCI to sell its cemetery and funeral home in Las Vegas to complete the acquisition of Palm.

The Commission charged that Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s acquisition of Robin Hood Holdings Limited, owner of Arrow Pharmaceuticals, would have harmed consumers by eliminating future competition for important generic drugs used to treat Parkinson’s disease (cabergoline) and the side effects of chemotherapy (dronabinol). The Commission’s order requires the firms to sell assets related to the two drugs to FTC-approved buyers and to ensure the acquirers have the means to compete effectively in the future.

There is a related federal proceeding and two related administrative proceedings:

• Watson Pharmaceuticals / Actavis Inc.
• Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Andrx Corporation

The FTC announced a consent order that will maintain competition in the market for bulk de-icing road salt in Maine and Connecticut that otherwise would have been lost as a result of K+S Aktiengesellschaft’s (K+S) $1.68 billion proposed acquisition of Morton International, Inc. To protect state and local governments from higher prices, the order requires K+S’s U.S. subsidiary, International Salt Company LLC (ISCO), to sell its bulk de-icing salt assets in Maine to Eastern Salt Company, Inc., and to sell a similar set of assets in Connecticut to Granite State Minerals, Inc.

Under terms of the order, Aspen agreed to divest Hypotech’s continuous process and batch process assets and Aspen’s operator training software and service business to a Commission-approved buyer to settle charges in the complaint and resolve the administrative proceedings. The Commission issued an administrative complaint on August 6, 2003 that challenged Aspen’s 2002 acquisition of Hyprotech, Ltd. alleging that the acquisition eliminated a significant competitor in the provision of process engineering simulation software for industry. According to the complaint, the acquisition has led to reduced innovation competition in six specific process engineering simulation software markets.

The Commission authorized a preliminary injunction to block Thoratec Corporation’s proposed $282 million acquisition of rival medical device maker HeartWare International, Inc., charging that the transaction would substantially reduce competition in the U.S. market for left ventricular devices (LVADs), a life-sustaining treatment for patients with advanced heart failure. The FTC’s administrative complaint alleges that Thoratec seeks to maintain its monopoly by acquiring HeartWare, thus eliminating the only significant threat to Thoratec’s continued dominance of the LVAD market.  In August of 2009, the parties announced they would not to proceed with the proposed acquisition, and the Commission dismissed the Administrative Complaint without filing an motion for preliminary injunction in federal court.