Sky Blog
Debates over Big Tech M&A often focus on “killer acquisitions,” where a dominant firm buys a startup in order to eliminate a future rival. A more subtle and, in some ways, more difficult problem is that innovation can lose momentum …
For the last decade, the legal effort to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for its climate denialism has been advanced through tort and consumer protection law. Plaintiffs asserted claims of public nuisance and consumer fraud, alleging that “Big Oil” …
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On November 25, 2025, the DOJ announced that it agreed to settle claims that RealPage, Inc. (RealPage) violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by unlawfully sharing competing users’ competitively sensitive information for use in competitors’ pricing and by entering …
Over the past three years, courts across the country have evaluated the use of pricing algorithms under the antitrust laws. In 2022, private plaintiffs filed the first of many civil cases involving algorithmic pricing against software provider RealPage and its …
In recent years, state Attorneys General (AGs) have taken a more active approach in antitrust enforcement matters related to mergers and acquisitions. For example, earlier this year, laws in Washington and Colorado requiring parties to submit pre-merger notification filings went …
The Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ’s Antitrust Division recently announced two settlement agreements, signaling that this Administration is willing to resolve merger competition concerns — in appropriate cases — through negotiated divestiture remedies. These actions herald a return to …
The state of Washington became the first to enact a broad premerger notification law covering transactions across all industries. The law, S.B. 5122,[1] was enacted on April 4, 2025, and goes into effect July 27, 2025. S.B. 5122, modeled …
The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice has updated its 2019 Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs in Criminal Antitrust Investigations. The changes bring the guidance in line with recent changes to the DOJ Criminal Division’s compliance guidance, but also …
The administration’s antitrust picks are in. President Donald Trump has nominated Gail Slater to be the assistant attorney general for antitrust and Andrew Ferguson – currently a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission – to become the FTC chair. Upon
The digital economy has put antitrust regulation in the spotlight, with increasingly dominant technology companies – such as Amazon, Google, Facebook (Meta), Apple, and Microsoft – reviving concerns about private monopolies reminiscent of Standard Oil and AT&T. Yet the enforcement …
In recent years, big tech companies have faced growing scrutiny over their market power and influence. Yet they continue to expand, often using creative strategies to bypass regulatory roadblocks. One such strategy involves the use of special purpose acquisition companies …
Companies acquire or merge with each other for a variety of worthwhile reasons, ranging from managing uncertainty to gaining scale to accessing new resources. They also do it for less desirable reasons, including to gain market and political power, raise …
On May 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) jointly announced a request for members of the public to provide information that the agencies can use “to identify serial acquisitions and …
In the complex world of corporate governance, a novel mechanism has reemerged: board observers. Operating without the conventional voting rights of board members, these individuals have become pivotal in bridging the gap between ambitious startups and their venture capital (VC) …
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in common ownership, where large institutional investors hold substantial shares in several companies within the same sector. Theoretically, common ownership may result in higher product prices, as common owners might favor …
How can antitrust best serve social goals? For the many who argue that market power yields greater wealth inequality, vigorous antitrust enforcement is necessary to close the gap. Yet equality is not a consideration for current antitrust policy, which …
In March 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) revised its Justice Manual to include a new safe harbor for acquiring companies that self-report criminal conduct by an acquired company identified in due diligence (the “Safe Harbor”). When the Safe …