Antitrust and Competition

Mergers and Joint Ventures

NERA economists have extensive experience in all phases of merger and joint venture analysis, including assessing the antitrust risks of a transaction; responding to second requests from the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission; explaining the likely competitive effects of a transaction before US agencies, the European Commission and the competition authorities of EU member states, Japan’s Fair Trade Commission, China’s Ministry of Commerce, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, and other jurisdictions throughout the world; and providing expert testimony in merger litigation.

Our experts provide extensive economic analysis of market definition, competitive effects, entry, and efficiencies. We have experience in a broad array of commercial, industrial, consumer product, health care, and high-technology industries. We recognize the vital importance of technical and quantitative rigor and, to that end, employ advanced approaches such as econometric estimation of the relevant demand elasticities and merger simulation. NERA’s global antitrust practice works on an increasing number of trans-national mergers, such as Anheuser Busch/InBev (US, UK, and China) and Sun/Oracle (US and EU).

NERA experts have analyzed the antitrust aspects of several of the largest transactions over the past several years, including Conoco/Phillips and Merck/Schering Plough before the US antitrust agencies, and numerous in-depth Phase II merger control cases under the European Merger Regulation, such as Thomson/Reuters, Inco/Falconbridge, and Universal/BMG Music Publishing.