Antitrust: Cartel and Federal Trade Commission

There is also the question of national sovereignty. The US government officials and Boeing executives expressed their view that “what authority a European body would have over a merger between two US companies that did almost all of their manufacturing in the US and had a few assets in the EU ” On the one hand, it is reasonable that once the FTC made its decision on the

The United States antitrust legislation is a legislation designed to break up and prevent the formation of new monopolies to increase competition and societal welfare. Thus the United State Antitrust law is a collection of both state and federal government laws enacted to promote fair competition in the economy. The antitrust laws main statutes consist of the Sherman Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914 and the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914. In combination these acts have enforced the proper rules and regulations that businesses must conform to today to ensure that there is a healthy competition within the economy to not only the benefit of the consumers who utilize these services and goods but for the health of the businesses who make up our market industries.

The combined United Continental Holdings competes on the basis of having what it terms "the most comprehensive global route network", modern planes, and "an industry-leading loyalty program" (UnitedContinentalHoldings.com, 2012). The merger between two struggling airlines was announced in 2010, and the United brand is going to be the one that is most prominent going forward. There have recently been some minor implementation problems in unwinding the Continental name (Martin, 2012).

Through the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) that a company receives from the merger, we were able to see the effects of second requests and complaints on the company’s stock price over time. This methodology of using event studies to gauge the effects of mergers and the antitrust agency involvement was first applied by Eckbo (1983), and most recently by Filson, Olfati, and Radoniqi (2015). The event studies used in both of these journals and the others mentioned within the review of literature give us a good understanding of how accurate event studies are for predicting the effects that second requests or complaints given out by antitrust agencies can have on merging firms and within their

Pikula (1999) observes that in merging two or more entities, the management of the companies must adhere to the Sherman Anti-trust Act which was established in 1890. This act was specifically established to prevent mergers from creating monopolies and cartels with an aim to exploit the consumers through determining prevailing market prices. If the merger results in a monopoly, it won’t be approved by the government. Employee contractual agreements must be considered before, during and after mergers. For the merger to go on seamlessly there should be shareholder approval. Initial approval by shareholders for the companies to consolidate their operations helps prevent conflicts from shareholders after the merger. Lastly, regulatory approval should be considered. The management must register the newly formed company. In addition, managers from the merging parties must consider agreements and contracts that the parties are engaging in as these will be transferred to the new company upon the merger.

Throughout mankind existence, civilization has brought many changes that have affected lives. For some, these changes have brought better condition of living, for others disparities. With the emergence of industrialization businesses have focused on controlling world market and prices by creating a monopoly in order to have absolute control, making it almost impossible for competition to survive. As consumers begin to suffer government were forced to create policies in order to address this alarming behavior. By the 1890’s U.S gorvernment has introduced legislation of the Interstate Commerce Act. The Sherman Act of 1890’s regulation of antitrust competition policies was created as competing mechanisms to control monopolistic behaviors. Since

Working beneath the American Airlines name, a standout amongst the most perceived brands on the planet, the consolidated aircraft will have a vigorous worldwide system and a solid money related establishment. The merger will offer advantages to both carriers' clients, groups, workers, financial

As a result, the proposed merger would have posed an unacceptable risk to competition and innovation, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The innovation

Mergers and acquisitions may be put to antitrust review by a number of government agencies. In the United States, mergers and acquisitions are subject to review by various federal and state regulators. In addition, foreign jurisdictions may review such mergers and acquisitions in certain situations. For example, the European Union and China now frequently require pre-merger approval. In certain regulated industries, such as banking, communications, electric power, insurance, and natural gas, mergers must be approved by various US State regulatory agencies, generally under a public interest standard that may involve issues of local concern separate from antitrust review. In some cases, private parties may also initiate actions to block a proposed

Antitrust law is enacted by the federal and various state governments to (1) regulate trade and commerce by preventing unlawful restraints, price-fixing, and monopolies; (2) promote competition; and (3) encourage the production of quality goods and services with the primary goal of safeguarding public welfare by ensuring that consumer demands will be met by the manufacture and sale of goods at reasonable prices.

The federal government has recently filed a lawsuit against AT&T and Time warner for trying to vertically merge together. The reason why the government is filing a lawsuit against the merge is that AT&T- Time Warmer will be able to demand higher prices for consumers to receive networks such as TNT, TBS, and CNN. AT&T makes the argument that this vertical merge has earned the green light from the government in the past. For example, in 2011 when NBC and Universal merged together as a vertical merge the government approved it but the Justice Department and the FCC set a variety of conditions in order to approve the vertical merge between the companies. The DOJ also argues that by completing this merge the companies will raise cost to consumers

The merger between American Airlines and U.S. Airways is one that can be explained using static game theory models. The two players in the game would be American Airlines and U.S. Airways. Each one of the players would have something to gain from the merger, but they would also have something to lose. In this game American Airlines is our first player. American Airlines’ potential payoff is merging with a company that is maximizing profits, but is also lacking in the customer service department. U.S. Airways is player two, and in this game they are merging with a business that is suffering from chapter 11 bankruptcy, but is excelling in customer service.

US Airways completed a merger in December 2013 . This merger provided much needed cash infusion into American Airlines, enabling it to emergency from

GE has officially announced the merge and acquisition with Honeywell on October 22, 2000 and if it has been gone through, GE will be the biggest company in aerospace industry with more than 60% of total market share. Undoubtedly, GE will be more monopolists and may bring about the unfair competition with the rivals. Hence, both the United States (represented by the Department of Justice (DOJ)) and European countries (represented by the European Commission (EC)) have a "Antitrust Law ' subject to protect the merger

In the past few years, the commercial air carriers have formed strategic alliances with each other which were not possible before this due to the previous regulations.