There’s been a lot of talk this year about increased merger scrutiny. To be fair, much of it comes from the regulators (the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department) themselves, who emphasize that they’re taking market concentration seriously and are skeptical of deals that prior administrations waved through.
The number of Hart-Scott-Rodino Act-reported deals is down from record highs in 2021 and 2022, and HSR statistics show a possible impact of antitrust efforts on M&A. Yet the numbers of withdrawn and terminated M&A deals, when compared to the numbers of HSR-reported deals, show no antitrust impact on the number of ...