Robert Pitofsky, professor of Antitrust and Trade at Georgetown University and former Federal Trade Commission chairman during the Clinton administration, spoke about the changes he expects to see in antitrust enforcement between the outgoing Bush administration and the incoming Obama administration at the The Deal's M&A Outlook 2009 conference Wednesday morning.
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"The Department of Justice has set records for inactivity in enforcing antitrust laws in the last 8 years," Pitofsky observed. "Since enforcement cases have been zero [in the Bush administration], it's safe to assume that it will go up in the new administration.
"However I don't think there's going to be a wild rash of challenges to mergers," he continued.
"From all the things Obama said about antitrust, he's never called for new laws; he's advocated enforcement of the laws as they are written. The interesting question is whether mergers will go through under the 'failing company' defense that stipulates that you can yourself sell to anybody because you can't pay the bills as they come in." -
George WhiteSee all M&A Outlook 2009 posts
