A federal judge’s rejection of an FTC attempt to block Whole Food...

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is likely to be appealed by the FTC. “We believe the ruling is a modest positive for the pending XM-Sirius and Google-DoubleClick transactions, which are under heavy scrutiny” by federal agencies, Stifel Nicolas said. “While mergers are very fact-specific and the judge’s opinion has not yet been made public, we suspect the Whole Foods decision will give XM-Sirius and Google-DoubleClick some new legal ammo to argue for defining their relevant markets broadly, which could reduce antitrust concerns about potential anti-competitive effects. At a minimum, it gives the reviewing agencies some food for thought.” In a June research report, Janco Partners had flagged the Whole Food case as having implications for the XM-Sirius merger. Janco analyst April Horace, who wrote that report, told us she didn’t write a follow up note because an appeal is likely. If the decision withstands appeal, it could have implications for the review of the satellite merger, she said. FTC Competition Director Jeffrey Schmidt said he regretted that the court had overturned the commission’s decision. “We respect the Court’s decision, which we currently are reviewing,” he said. “We brought this challenge because the evidence before us showed that the merger would most likely result in higher prices and reduced choices for consumers who shop at premium natural and organic supermarkets.”