Judge’s Ruling Regarding Whole Foods Could Be Good News For XM-Sirius
A federal judge has rejected the FTC's attempt to block the planned Whole Foods takeover of Wild Oats, in a decision that could have some broader ramifications. This, according to an analyst report from Stifel Nicolaus, could be good news for those in favor of the XM-Sirius merger.
The report states: “We believe the ruling is a modest positive for the pending XM-Sirius and Google-DoubleClick transactions, which are under heavy scrutiny at the DOJ/FCC and FTC, respectively.
“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.”
