On November 9, the European Commission approved the proposed acquisition of Fisher Scientific International Inc. by Thermo Electron Corporation. Both companies are based in the United States and supply products and services for laboratory activities. The Commission’s clearance is conditional upon the divestiture of Genevac, Fisher’s subsidiary active in the…
The European Commission cleared the proposed acquisition by the Dutch company Philips of the US-based company Intermagnetics on November 7. After examining the operation, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it. Philips markets a…
Following her meeting in Brussels on November 7 with Antonio Di Pietro, Italy’s Minister for Public Works, European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes expressed her satisfaction that the Italian authorities removed what the Commission considered to be unjustified obstacles to a merger between Abertis of Spain and Autostrade of Italy.…
A company that sent unsolicited commercial e-mail after consumers asked it to stop agreed to pay a $50,717 civil penalty on November 6 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated federal law. The FTC charged Yesmail Inc., doing business as @Once Corporation, with sending e-mail on behalf of…
On November 3, Zango, Inc., formerly known as 180solutions, Inc., one of the world’s largest distributors of adware, and two principals agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they used unfair and deceptive methods to download adware and obstruct consumers from removing it, in violation of federal law. The…
The DOJ announced on October 31st that it suspended its investigation of Entercom Communications Corporation’s proposed $262 million acquisition of Texas, Ohio, Tennessee, and New York radio stations from CBS Corporation as long as the companies sell three Rochester radio stations. Entercom informed the DOJ that it planned to divest…
On October 31, the Federal Trade Commission announced its decision to challenge the terms of Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s proposed $1.9 billion acquisition of Andrx Corporation, a deal that would have led to competitive problems in the markets for 13 generic drug products. In allowing the deal to proceed while addressing…
On October 31st, the European Commission cleared the proposed acquisition of Bayer Diagnostics, the diagnostic division of Bayer Healthcare, a business unit of Bayer AG of Germany, by Siemens AG of Germany. The Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or…
On October 30, the DOJ announced that it will not oppose a proposal by the VMEbus International Trade Association (“VITA”) to implement a policy on the disclosure and licensing of patents. The policy requires the disclosure of essential patents, commitments to license essential patent claims on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory…
Andre P. Barlow’s most recent published article is now available on the Legal Times website. To read it, please visit: http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1161075916475&hub=Commentary