Antitrust M&A Snapshot | Q3 2022
Summary
The judge found that the horizontal issue was remedied by the parties’ proposed divestiture of an overlapping business to a private equity buyer and the vertical theory was countered by the real-world evidence presented at trial. • In public procurement procedures with a contract value of more than EUR 250 million, companies will have to report all third-country financial contributions (such as the transfer of funds or liabilities, the foregoing of revenue otherwise due, and the provision or purchase of goods or services) they have received in the last three years. The ALJ found that complaint counsel (i.e., the FTC staff) had not shown that the transaction would create an incentive for Illumina to withhold its genomic sequencing product from GRAIL’s cancer detection test rivals. On July 19, 2022, the Commission approved Bouygues’s acquisition of Equans, subject to the divestment of Colas Rail Belgium (including all assets, personnel, and ongoing and future contracts of both its railway contact lines and track installation services). The CMA also found that Microsoft (which holds a unique position in the market as the owner of the Windows operating system and has improved its built-in, bundled security application) offers an increasingly important alternative for consumers.