U.S. in 'Merger Wave,' Acting Associate Attorney General Says

remarks made available online of his talk at the American Antitrust Institute's annual conference. Baer said the U.S. "is in the midst of a merger wave, with the number, size and complexity of mergers among the highest they have been" in the last 10 years. "We will not bring a case based on the presumption where a holistic view of the evidence shows an anti competitive effect is unlikely," Baer said, saying market share alone might not illustrate all the likely anti-competitive effects of a transaction. Baer walked through DOJ thinking on numerous merger reviews. He said Comcast's attempted buy of Time Warner Cable would have given Comcast too much power over content providers relying on interconnecting to its network and too much ability and incentive "to thwart disruptive innovators such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sling TV." Baer highlighted the increased competition in the wireless industry after DOJ's rejection of AT&T's buy of T-Mobile in 2011. The case informed how the agency looked at subsequent proposed mergers, he said. When T-Mobile sought approval to buy MetroPCS, the agency concluded it would benefit consumers more than reduce competition, and post merger MetroPCS rolled out its low-price plan across T-Mobile's footprint, he said. Conversely, he said, when faced with Sprint's proposed buy of T-Mobile, "we made clear such a deal involved an unacceptable risk-reward proposition for consumers." Baer also said the DOJ antitrust suit against Bazaarvoice after its buy of consumer review site rival PowerReviews shows antitrust laws apply equally even in new markets: "We made the point that even non-reportable, consummated deals can risk competition." Baer also said Bazaarvoice shows DOJ assessments of competitive effects look beyond quantitative analyses to such evidence as testimony and party documents, pointing to documentation from executives indicating the PowerReviews deal revolved around eliminating a chief competitor.