The FTC Takes a Closer Look at Consolidation
Executive Summary
The Federal Trade Commission's objections to the Abbott/Alza merger sank the deal--despite the companies' attempt to satisfy the FTC with a divestiture of the product at issue, Viadur. The implications: an increasingly aggressive FTC, with a much stricter sense of what constitutes anti-competitiveness, may require much different remedies from merging companies. But they're not saying what.