Latest news with #MergerGuidelines
Business Insider
18-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
FTC reopens, sets aside Exxon-Pioneer final order
The Federal Trade Commission reopened and set aside the final consent order involving Exxon Mobil Corporation's (XOM) proposed acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources Company (PXD). The FTC's final order prohibited Exxon from nominating, designating, or appointing founder and former Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield to Exxon's board of directors or from serving in an advisory capacity in any way to the Exxon board or Exxon's management. In addition, the final consent order required that for a period of five years, Exxon shall not nominate, designate, or appoint any Pioneer employee or director, other than certain named individuals, to Exxon's board. The FTC's May 2024 complaint alleged that Mr. Sheffield sought to coordinate oil output levels with other crude oil producers, and that appointment to Exxon's board would give him a larger platform for coordination and create an unlawful interlocking directorate. Now-Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak dissented when the consent order was proposed. In January 2025, just days before President Trump's inauguration, the outgoing majority approved the final consent order, again over the dissent of now-Chairman Ferguson and Commissioner Holyoak. In March 2025, Mr. Sheffield petitioned the FTC to reopen and vacate the order, and the FTC received over 3,000 comments from the public. Upon review of the matter, the FTC found that the complaint: failed to plead any antitrust law violation under Section 7 of the Clayton Act; contained no allegations that Exxon's acquisition of Pioneer would be anticompetitive; did not allege that the acquisition would materially increase market concentration or that it would increase the potential for coordination among oil producers, and; disregarded the FTC's Merger Guidelines and decades of precedent. The FTC denied Mr. Sheffield's petition because he lacked standing. However, the FTC Act authorizes the Commission to modify a prior order when it is in the public interest. In light of the complaint's deficiencies, the FTC concluded that maintaining the restrictions on Mr. Sheffield's employment would damage the FTC's credibility and undermine its mission. Vacating the final order is therefore in the public interest. Exxon has already consented to setting aside the final order and has waived all its rights under rule 3.72(b). Thursday's decision accordingly sets aside the final order without further process. The vote to reopen and set aside the final order was 3-0. Elevate Your Investing Strategy:
Business Insider
18-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
FTC reopens, sets aside Chevron-Hess final order
The Federal Trade Commission reopened and set aside the final consent order involving Chevron Corporation's (CVX) proposed acquisition of Hess Corporation (HES). The January 2025 final consent order prohibited Chevron from nominating, designating, or appointing Hess CEO John B. Hess Chevron's board of directors. The FTC's complaint alleged that Mr. Hess made 'supportive messaging' to representatives of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries regarding their agenda to stabilize the oil market. The complaint alleged that Mr. Hess's participation on Chevron's board would amplify Mr. Hess's messaging to OPEC and others, increasing the likelihood that Chevron would align its production with OPEC's output decisions. When the settlement was published in September 2024, now-Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak dissented. However, just days before President Trump's inauguration, the outgoing majority approved the final consent order, again over the dissent of now-Chairman Ferguson and Commissioner Holyoak. In March 2025, Chevron and Hess petitioned the Commission to reopen and modify the final consent order. After a period of public comment and review, the FTC found that the complaint: failed to plead any antitrust law violation under Section 7 of the Clayton Act; contained no allegations that Chevron's acquisition of Hess would be anticompetitive; did not allege that the acquisition would materially increase market concentration or that it would increase the potential for coordination among oil producers, and; disregarded the FTC's Merger Guidelines and decades of precedent. The FTC concluded that in light of these deficiencies, maintaining the restrictions on Mr. Hess's employment would damage the FTC's credibility and undermine its mission. Granting Chevron's and Hess's petition is therefore in the public interest. The vote approving the petition to reopen and set aside the order was 3-0. Elevate Your Investing Strategy:
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Antitrust activists praise FTC action under new chairman
One of the entrances to the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington, DC, that serves as the headquarters of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). After first expressing worries, groups seeking to limit concentrated corporate power are now praising actions by the new leader of the Federal Trade Commission, one of two federal agencies tasked with ensuring a level economic playing field. In statements in support of 2023 merger guidelines and in support of a case against health conglomerates, Andrew Ferguson, President Donald Trump's appointee as chair of the FTC, seems to be sticking to the agency's more aggressive course of the past several years. Ferguson raised concerns in late January when his first official act was to attack work at the agency aimed at developing a diverse workforce. Referring to such efforts as 'DEI,' Trump without evidence has blamed diversity programs for a host of problems — including a plane-helicopter crash over the Potomac River. Antitrust activists worried that Ferguson would expound such Trumpian themes while unwinding the recent work of the FTC. After four decades of relative non-enforcement under Republican and Democratic presidents, the agencies more recently had been taking steps to block consolidation through such measures and stopping the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger. After attacking 'DEI,' Ferguson last week reiterated his support for merger guidelines the FTC adopted in 2023. 'As we confront this merger wave together, I write to clarify the standards which should guide your review of transactions,' Ferguson said in a Feb. 18 memo. 'Insofar as there is any ambiguity, let me be clear: the FTC's and DOJ's joint 2023 Merger Guidelines are in effect and are the framework for this agency's merger-review analysis.' This is seen as a big deal because since the start of the Reagan administration in 1981, the federal government largely took the brakes off of corporate mergers, making the argument that bigger companies would create better outcomes for consumers. However, with giant conglomerates dominating multiple parts of ever-inflating health transactions, firms helping massive landlords artificially increase rents and a dominant few processors hiking meat prices, calls have arisen to get back to antitrust basics. One antitrust group, the Institute for Local Self Reliance, in 2023 described the basis of the new, stricter merger guidelines. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'To this end, Congress (in 1950) banned any merger where the effect 'may be substantially to lessen competition… in any line of commerce,'' it said on its website. 'As the law's legislative history makes clear, lawmakers believed corporate concentration was both an economic and political danger — a reality that we are facing today. Concentrated corporate power threatened small businesses, workers, and the ability of people to control their lives and communities. To prevent these harms, Congress passed a law designed to head off industry consolidation 'in its incipiency' — long before it even gets started.' Stacy Mitchell, the group's founder, took to Bluesky to praise Ferguson for his statement. 'A piece of good news on the federal front that will surprise many: The new FTC Chair endorsed the 2023 Merger Guidelines, telling staff to use them to assess whether proposed mergers are illegal,' she said. 'Many corporations had hoped/assumed the guidelines would be rescinded in the new administration.' A Biden appointee to the trade commission also praised Ferguson's stance in favor of the 2023 merger guidelines — and he did so after blasting the new chairman's order regarding 'DEI.' 'I think this is the clearest sign yet that antimonopoly isn't for blue America or red America, and I think those guidelines are going to make a big difference for small business and labor, and I think that's really exciting,' the commissioner, Alvaro Bedoya, said last week during an online event proposing to break up big health conglomerates. Then on Tuesday, Ferguson took to X to praise a decision in federal court against CVS Health, one of the conglomerates the FTC is investigating. 'The @FTC just achieved a big win for Americans,' he wrote. 'A federal court has ordered CVS and its pharmacy benefits manager to comply with our demands to turn over documents related to whether they are engaged in anticompetitive conduct.' He added, 'I have long said that if firms do not cooperate with our investigations, we should take them to court. The law is clear: Complying with our orders is mandatory.' The agency is looking into whether CVS Health, UnitedHealth Group and Cigna-Express Scripts are using their dominance in several aspects of the insurance and health marketplaces to pad profits by artificially inflating drug costs. The FTC has repeatedly accused CVS and the others of foot-dragging when it demanded documents for its investigations. In this case, it said CVS has ''made no meaningful progress toward compliance in the last seven months,' failed to produce a single document since September, 'repeatedly offered production target dates and then missed them,' and continues to argue 'that it should be exempted from producing any documents from the past year,'' U.S. District Judge John D. Bates of D.C. district wrote in his ruling. 'Thus, CVS is not in compliance, and the FTC has no reason to trust its promise of future compliance. CVS's promise of future compliance is not a reason for this Court to deny an otherwise sound enforcement petition.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
