The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit Friday announced whole-hearted approval of the FTC's challenge to an anticompetitive merger for large, specialty on-site gas storage tanks. A bit too optimistically perhaps, the FTC's press statement Friday declared "the circuit court's ruling ends litigation in the case against CB&I."
For the nonlawyers in the room, "evaluating legal options" means the gas storage tank builder is trying to decide whether to ask the Supreme Court to take up the case. Most antitrust experts suggest the Supreme Court is unlikely to weigh in because the case doesn't pose any sticky question needing comment from the nation's highest court. But it could happen, as the court led by Justice John Roberts has taken far more antitrust cases than the Rehnquist court.
If nothing else, CB&I would benefit from requesting a grant of certiorari, because it would have more time to carry out the divestiture order and a few more months of earning those monopoly profits the FTC is worried about. - Cecile Kohrs Lindell
See story from TheDeal.com: FTC breakup upheld
